Breathe
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: October 13, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time OutMichael GingoldOct 13, 2017
The movie sometimes strains for visual impact: A German medical facility is designed like a Kubrickian nightmare. But by film’s end, Robin and Diana’s devotion to each other wins you over — as does Serkis’s devotion to his story. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraSep 14, 2017
There's a hint of comforting, chocolate-box, Sunday-night TV here, but it's delivered via such quietly powerful performances and with such hope that it's hard to resist. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 19, 2017
After such a revolutionary acting career, Andy Serkis should be expected to make an equally inventive directing debut. Breathe is anything but that. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanOct 18, 2017
The story by screenwriter William Nicholson (“Everest”) jumps from one major episode in Robin’s life to another, but with none of those episodes delving into his interior life, Breathe remains a superficial tear-jerker. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 18, 2017
These successes are inspiring, but deeper and more complex emotions are unexplored. It’s no fault of Foy’s performance; she brings depth, humor, and conviction to her role as the devoted wife. Garfield, on the other hand, labors mightily but can’t overcome the superficiality of the character as scripted by William Nicholson (“Shadowlands”). Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 18, 2017
Never dull and never loses its audience, but there is, inevitably, a certain sameness to the scenes, with Garfield spending a lot of time just sitting there with a goofy smile on his face. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaOct 14, 2017
It’s a plenty good story to tell, but even by the time the respirator takes its last gasp, I was ultimately unmoved. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 13, 2017
For a movie called Breathe, Andy Serkis’ directorial debut is curiously airless — or maybe just quintessentially British, all stiff upper lip and light on emoting. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyJoey NolfiOct 12, 2017
A tame, vanilla whimper of a period drama begging for a better treatment in more assured hands. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 12, 2017
In leaving out the rasp of life from this unusual story, Breathe too often feels like a mechanized exhale. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithOct 9, 2017
The film is an easily digestible replica of the truth, bathed in honeyed cinematography and sentimentalized adulation. Read full review
50
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 13, 2017
The lack of emotional distance between the filmmakers and the subject – producer Jonathan Cavendish is the son of Robin and Diana – might account for the bracingly celebratory approach. This is understandable, perhaps, but it results in a lack of dramatic light and shade, and an absence of texture in the characterisation. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 13, 2017
This earnestly romantic biopic of odds-beating polio patient Robin Cavendish and his unwavering wife, Diana, keeps its eyes moist and its upper lip stiff to the last — but its sweeping inspirational gestures rarely reach all the way to the heart. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 13, 2017
The performances and the inherent power of the true story keep it from being a complete disaster, but one hopes Serkis moves on to more challenging material with his follow-up. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 10, 2017
Breathe seems to want nothing more than to be "The Theory Of Everything" for a slightly newer generation. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonSep 13, 2017
Breathe is clearly aiming for the same heart-wrenching emotional heights as James Marsh’s Oscar-winning Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything. But this is very much a crude copy, its noble intentions hobbled by a trite script, flat characters and a relentlessly saccharine tone that eventually starts to grate. Read full review
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