X
- 2014
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 38 m
- 2014
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 38 m
Summary When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family's relationships and alters their lives forever.
Directed By: Drake Doremus
Written By: Ben York Jones, Drake Doremus
- 2014
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 38 m
- 2014
- R
- Cohen Media Group
- 1 h 38 m
Breathe In
60
6.7
Where to Watch
Summary When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family's relationships and alters their lives forever.
Directed By: Drake Doremus
Written By: Ben York Jones, Drake Doremus
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
60
62% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
24% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
14% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
60
62% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
24% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
14% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
The exquisitely calibrated Breathe In explores such a fraught mutual passion with honesty, intimacy and complete emotional involvement.
While the plot — too low-key to be called a thriller — points toward obvious extramarital cliches, delicate changes in the overall mood reveal deeper truths.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 User Ratings
6.7
61% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
26% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
13% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 User Ratings
6.7
61% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
26% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
13% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Agonizingly, purposefully and sadistically slow moving. It's a thin line between dragging something out, and enjoying every moment that you spend with a person. ...I mean a film.
So I totally fell in love with the perfect Sophie, who is essentially my dream girl, but equally fell in love with the flawed human family situation that Keith had going on.
We all have our interpretations of things and I chose to cast aside my inhibitions as I watched, the withheld passion and electricity between the two leads almost set the room on fire each time they were forced to hold themselves apart from one another, and this was as new an experience for me vicariously, as it was for Keith experiencing it. And as a male audience obviously I (definitely wrongly) sided with Keith. I decided it wasn't creepy as the argument of love, passion and an organic bond between soul mates, made it's case so strongly as the characters face's were practically pressed up against the screen in one intimate moment after the next. It was like watching through their windows!
Intimate moments which were stolen away by characters that I've heard people say were "wrongly villainized." I utterly utterly disagree with this.
I'm not the most sympathetic person you'll find but I absolutely wanted the best for each of the players on the board. The entire thing held me with drama and guilt by allowing me to come to my own realisation that this was never going to go well. The lesser characters were dotted around going through the motions carelessly, and at no point did I feel like I was meant to dislike any of them for how they'd affected Keith's **** a brief moment where Keith lets his regrets slip I would certainly have villainized him, but instead I sympathised more as he struggled monstrously to hold the rest down. The director perfectly utilises natural, subtle expressions to build tension in moments like this, which is certainly not the only example.
But then came the fresh reminder that they are all human. They are weak.
A person can spend their entire life wishing they'd done something else while not necessarily resenting their current situation, when a fresh opportunity comes along. A reset button. And it comes in the shape of a mature, amazing, talented, perfect (for you) human being who simply aches for you, but remains aware of the dangers, because they're also very down to earth!
I knew how it would end from the minute it started, but that reality and also the unique people and situations who constantly defied my expectations and misguided me, allowed my mind and heart to be lifted into the centre of a whirlwind of passion, something I wish fully to experience. Until it carried me back down to reality, kicking and screaming, while I watched helplessly as their collective mistakes set the final tone.
So before I go and say my prayers, that I may never find myself in such a painful, winnerless situation, I pass on a recommendation and a plea.
That you watch this film and take from it something special, for it has truly affected me.
Report
Buoyed by some nicely nuanced performances (especially by Pearce and Amy Ryan as his dream-dashing wife), Breathe In never quite rises above its predictable potboiler premise.
To be fair, Breathe In may hit a lot of familiar beats, but none of them are entirely unwelcome.
For all the obviousness on the surface, and despite some forced last-act havoc, Breathe In works like a piece of chamber music. It goes up to the edge of emotion, circles it, then backs away. But the notes not hit seem as powerful as the ones that are.
The whole thing unspools at such an unremittingly earnest pitch that it leaves you groping under your seat for a ventilator.
Seemingly high-brow because it's so low-key, but underneath that veneer is an inert, thinly plotted melodrama premised on trite characterizations that would be offensive if they weren't so absurd.
"Breathe In" is a purposefully slow burn with deep long breaths. Why anyone would want to hurry this film along is beyond me. I enjoyed the smoldering mutual attraction, the initial looking and not looking, the yearning to touch and be touched without ever acknowledging it. And then, when those hidden wants are finally revealed, we're able to exhale for a little while. Of course, reality eventually discovers our main characters in their fantasy land and we're left holding our breath again. Stolen moments can be sweet, but there's a price for stealing.
Report
This is a slow burn piece that only becomes drama towards the end. Performances are as good as should be expected for this kind of film. However, it is a story that would have been better suited to tv. where its small ambitions would probably have been better served. Not bad, just lacking impact.
Report
Production Company
Indian Paintbrush,
Super Crispy Entertainment
Release Date Mar 28, 2014
Duration 1 h 38 m
Rating R
Awards
Deauville Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Chicago International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
AFI Fest
• 1 Nomination
