The Air I Breathe (2007)

It'll make you think...

"The Air I Breathe" represents an ancient Chinese proverb that says the emotional pillars to life are Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, and Love. I think they forgot anger, and a few others in there, but whatever.

This movie tells the tale of four intertwinded stories of four different lives, each of which representing and codenamed after the emotion they long for most, except in Trista's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) case.

SYNAPSIS (Don't keep reading if you don't want to know the story!):

Forest Whitaker is a humble banker who went to school and tried to make something of himself like the rest of us, but works a crummy job that doesn't pay enough and most importantly, is unhappy in his rut of a routine work life. His story chronologically comes last. After he meets the wealthy mob henchman who represents Pleasure (Brendan Frasier, surprisngly good, here), Happiness chooses to be like him and takes his advice of "risking it all." He overhears a few of the middle-management guys talk about a fix in a horse race with 8-to-1 odds and decides to follow them to the illegal betting joint and risk all his cash on his the lucky horse, named after his favorite creature, the Butterfly. During the race, Butterfly unexpectly stumbles over and Happiness is suddenly in deep trouble as he meets reluctant bad guy and mobster, Fingers. (played by Andy Garcia, but clearly written for Al Pacino, or even DeNiro) He's named so for his torture technique of cutting off fingers and plays the antagonist to everyone in this movie. Fingers gives Happiness two weeks to come up with the money and is greeted by Pleasure, Fingers' right hand man (no pun intended), who decides to not beat him up for some reason we don't yet know. He gives a gun and a fighting chance. Happiness decides to rob his own bank, knowing all the tricks and security of it all, and goes about with his elaborate plan. And in the process, as he's being chased down by SWAT and police, realizes that he just robbed a bank, and is being pursuited by the police, and he's never been happier, as he now is no longer the catepillar and is now, a butterfly.

Pleasure's story, the chronologically first, is that he can predict the future, but no matter what, can't change the outcome, making life predictable and numb for him. Fingers came across him and uses his gift to make both of them very rich. Pleasure now serves as his top henchman and enforcer. His job this week is to show his nephew Tony (Emile Hirsch, from "Alpha Dog") a good time out. Tony, a contemptible, foul-mouthed teenager is all about losing his virginity and comes to town (most likely, it's L.A.) to do that. That's when Pleasure gets the vision of Tony's death. Knowing he can't change what's gonna happen, he goes out onto the streets to think and leaves Tony at a brothel, run by Jiyoung (Kelly Hu), one of Finger's protection clients. Deciding to take a chance of saving Tony anyway, he returns once Tony bothers a high, easily agitated hooker and she steals a powerful gangster's gun and goes off on everyone. Tony and the hooker wrestle for the gun and they end up accidently shooting and killing the mob boss, leaving Tony to be rescued just in time by Pleasure from his goons. They are pursued through to an alleyway where Tony is supposed to die when he falls off a barb wire gate. However, when they climb, Tony makes it over and it's Pleasure who falls, leaving him to be badly beaten up by the mobster's hired goons. But despite the physical pain, he's never felt more pleasure as he can now wake up everyday, knowing that he can control his destiny and change fate. This realization though, rids him of his future sight,a nd he is rushed to a hospital and treated by a doctor, codenamed Love (Kevin Bacon).

Sorrow's story comes third, as she is living her dream life as a famous pop singer. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays her and Trista's a slightly more sympathetic version of Krysta Now, from Southland Tales. Krysta, Trista, coincidence? Anyway, despite her dream life of semi-fame and semi-fortune, she's haunted by the memory of her father's death from when she was a child. Trista is the only protagonist in the whole movie who already has the emotion they are codenamed for. After an interview with a "shock" host who reveals her to be nothing special and noteworthy, other than her rare Kp AB blood type, Trista falls into a deep depression, which only gets worse when her manager ends up as another of Finger's victims and is forced to sell Trista's contract to him. Fingers, with somewhat of a desire to go legit, decides to invest all his time in making Trista go from a mediocre pop star, to a superstar. However, he's pretty upset when he finds out that the manager drained Trista's account, leaving her bankrupt and finacially worthless to Fingers. He declares that she's his property until she becomes a finacial success, again. Pleasure, fresh out the hospital, is sent to reinforce this into Trista, but with the epiphany he has now about changing fate, decides he's going to do what he wants to do and decides to hide out Trista at his place and protect her from his boss. Trista deeply appreciates the gesture and while there, falls in love for the first time with her Knight in Bloody Armor. Pleasure, now free from his numbness, falls in love with Trista, too, having never had an emotional connection with anyone since his kid brother died some twenty years ago. However, Fingers enventually finds out about Trista (who's secret real legal name is Sorrow) and ambushes Pleasure as he returns home, to find a tied up and gagged Sorrow. Fingers blames Pleasure's betrayal on Sorrow and deems him no longer useful as his future sight has clearly gone away, as he was able to be ambushed so easily.

The final story, which is the most disconnected from the others, is the story of Dr. Love, Kevin Bacon, who is also Pleasure's doctor. Love's one ambition in life is to find his soulmate, but has messed up too many times with potential women from letting his fears hold him back. He waited to long to act and let the love of his life, Gina, marry his best friend, a plastic surgeon. Gina's an animal researcher and gets bitten by a poisonous viper during her work. Love sets out on a quest to find her rare Kp AB blood and overhears Trista's interview where she had an emotional breakdown. Now forced to perform under Finger's authority, Trista/Sorrow has only two choices on her mind: run-away or suicide. Love runs up to Trista's show and comes off too much like a crazed fan rather than a doctor trying to save his love's life. Outside, he comes across Trista, right as she's about to take a cab to the airport and is unable to explain the situation rationally enough before accidently hurting Trista/Sorrow and himself. He gets arrested and has the deeply depressing feeling of failure sink in in the police car. Meanwhile, Trista has suffered a concussion. She wakes up in the hospital early in the morning, with the news that she's three months pregnant with Pleasure's child. But Fingers refuses to let her keep the baby, as it will interfere with her career and financial debts. Trista/Sorrow, with no way out, contemplates suicide by leaping off the hospital roof and is noticed just in time by Love, who refues to fail this second time around. Love saves Sorrow's life, and Sorrow's rare blood is able to save Love's love, Gina. Somewhat happier now by her blood saving a life, Sorrow gets ready to adjust to her trapped life, when she comes across Happiness in the street, and is given his stolen money by an act of karma. The money is enough to escape Finger's debt and get away from him forever, with a new purpose in life, that of her unborn child's happiness, not her own.

The Air I Breathe was written and directed by first time writer/director Jieho Lee and is good, considering it's this writer/director's first ever project. Big name stars, an intersting story (if not completely original), and a thoroughly entertaining movie. Sure, it gets a little bit pretenious at times, with the Butterfly themes throughout that don't really add too much to things, but it's ultimately a movie about four characters and four emotions we all experience throughout life, or at least, long to. Without love, there is sorrow, and without sorrow, happiness is meaningless. Pleasure gives us momentary happiness, but without pleasure, life is pretty unlively and you're not bound to be too happy.

This movie isn't perfect, but it's well worth watching and a very impressive entry by Jieho Lee. It's just quite a shame that this movie didn't premiere in US theaters so that more people would have a chance to see it. Sure,you can say that it's "Crash lite," but is that really a bad thing? I don't think so. September 5, 2008

Interesting Movie, Quirky & Artsy......

But still reminiscent of other movies like Crash, Magnolia, & Traffic. This movie contains an all star cast of well-know actors, whom play vastly different characters. Each main character's life is uniquely intertwined and it isn't until the end of the movie that we see the complete picture of how and where their lives intersect.

The movie plays out in four vignettes that make up the entire movie as a whole. Each major character we see portrays one of the following emotions of sorrow, happiness, pleasure & love in this film, which makes for a novel viewing of this movie... Overall acting is good with the exception of Brendan Fraser.... For whatever reason he doesn't seem credible in his role in this film. September 1, 2008

A film of substance

If you like light weight films like "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle "or "Pineapple Express", this film is not for you." The Air I Breath" is a film that explores how our actions affect others, in ways, that we can not begin to imagine. The film follows what happens when a man take an unforseen action that ends in tragety for himself, but ultimately ends in joy for another, through a series of events in the lives of the characters in the film. It starts a little slow, but picks up speed taking you on roller coaster ride of emotion and pathos as you
are involved in the lives of people caught in the slipstream of anothers
seeming random act. The acting was first rate with Fraser, Whitaker, Gellar, and Garcia give outstanding performances. This is the kind of film Hollywood used to be famous for.
August 15, 2008

Very intirguing movie. Nice piece of celluloid.

The stellar cast by itself would be enough to spice one's curiosity. Come on, Fraser, Garcia, Gellar, Whitaker, Bacon, Delpy, Hirsch... It's unresistible.

But, as the saying goes, the road to hell is full of good intentions, and this low-budget project could be a catastrophe. But it is not. The movie is farily good, captivating. All the actors involved give solid performances, no matter how much screen time they got.

Good movie. August 13, 2008

Emotions like waves are constantly in flux...

The Air I Breathe is a movie of the entangled lives genre, similar to Crash in that respect, and it also conforms by way of gratuitous violence and strip clubs it gladly flaunts. But that is not to say that the narrative lacks depth or emotional layers. The viewer becomes acquainted with three lives that will intertwine so as to lend freedom to a fourth in four vignettes titled: Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow and Love. These characters, respectively played by Forest Whitaker, the disgruntled Wall Street clerk turned bank robber and suicidal sociopath; Brendan Fraser, a reticent hitman who seems to have lost his ability to predict the future as he decides to forsake fealty to his heartless crime lord (Andy Garcia); Kevin Bacon, a doctor who saves the life of Trista, a persecuted pop-star, and is thereby enabled to save from a snake bite his best-friend's wife (Julie Delpy), with whom he also happens to be secretly in love; and Sarah Michelle Gellar's pop tart, Trista, who becomes entangled favourably by the three lives but will lose everything in the while, love, career, and friends.
This is the debut feature by Jieho Lee, a Korean-American director and screenwriter who wrote this script as a reflection to his journey in a "bimodal world". The cinematography is well suited by the description of bimodal, as the colors are very stark but a terrifying chiaroscuro breathes the presence of a dual tone universe which seems to preface the destiny we all have set out for us, but not independently of others. The acting is mediocre, but for the outstanding consummate performance of Andy Garcia, who seems to be getting better with time and roles, and the flaky, horned-up supercilious nephew of Garcia's role played by Emile Hirsch.
The movie bounces along several themes but seems to defragment a somber reality where death and debts seem to frustrate everyone who has a heart, and where life is held hostage by forces that threaten us at all times, from every angle.
The congruence of themes is intriguing but the direction fails to fully represent this enigma in ways that portray the meaningful (or lack thereof) essence of life, aside from the role of coincidence. It seems to have no meaning save for being a yarn tangled and reeled compact. Ultimately however the violence seems to be overbearing and inopportune to portray the pain of ordinary lives and extraordinary men, some of which inexplicably have the advantage to foresee the future. This last aspect of the movie is very clearly a deus ex machina, which functions effectively as a means to allegorize destiny, but it does not fit with the pragmatics of the narrative's realist outlook. I fault the writing for that, whereas it was clearly insightful by other turns. There are deaths upon deaths and several cars slamming into people. A practice which I've yet to see done as well as in the Mexican movie Amores Perros, which was also about debts.
Herein I think much of the movie fails as well: the restraint it practices in regards to theme of debts, as was the case with the theme of destiny. I enjoyed the movie and it does hold you riveted to the screen thanks to stories that intersect and diverge only to meet into the future of one pop-star who is running away from her past and her present. It could have been better, but it deserves to be viewed.
A movie with a lot of questions, too bad it does not know how to ask them... August 4, 2008

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