Review of The Air I Breathe (2007) by Jebus C — 07 Mar 2009

The Air I Breathe is a pretty and artistic movie which bares many of the hallmarks of Magnolia. Based on a Chinese proverb which breaks life into 4 cornerstones each actor takes on one aspect: Love (Bacon), Pleasure (Fraser), Sorrow (Geller) and Happiness (Whitiker). There lives are loosely thrown together but in essence are just 4 short stories with a loose tenuous link to connect them. In this case its Andy Garciaâ??s Fingers (imagine Terry Benidict with lousy impulse control and your nearly there) who has controlling factor in all of there lives no matter how indirect.

While its well played by the actors though it is a difficult thing to follow, as it is fundamentally dealt with in four episodes. Other similar movies such as Magnolia or Crash have interwoven the stories to a linear timeline, but The Air I Breathe does not, preferring to deal with each episode in turn. Also the stories donâ??t feel evenly balanced, with Frasers and Gellers angles seemingly getting the most screentime. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but means that you do lose out on the strong Kevin Bacon and Forest Whittiker being able to do much. However Fraser is bloody good in an unusual straight turn for him and Geller deserves some kudos for her portrayal of a Britney-esque singer struggling to stand out from the crowd.

Personally I struggled to relate or understand what the film was trying to say, so I may need to have a couple of goâ??s at it in order to get my head around it, but it is a strong character piece for sure and one that all the cast give their all for. More straight roles for Mr Fraser please in future as wellâ?¦..