The Air I Breathe

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The Air I Breathe
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Jieho Lee
Produced by	Darlene Caamaño Emilio Diez Barroso Paul Schiff
Written by	Jieho Lee Bob DeRosa
Starring	Sarah Michelle Gellar Kevin Bacon Brendan Fraser Forest Whitaker Andy Garcia Emile Hirsch Julie Delpy
Distributed by	THINKFilm
Release date(s)	January 25, 2008 (limited)
Country	United States
Language	English
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Air I Breathe is a 2008 crime drama romance film and the directional debut from Korean-American filmmaker Jieho Lee, who co-wrote the script with Bob DeRosa. It stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Brendan Fraser, Cecilia Suárez, Clark Gregg, Emile Hirsch, Forest Whitaker, John Cho, Julie Delpy, Kelly Hu, Kevin Bacon and Andy Garcia. The film was financed by NALA Investments through its production company NALA Films. The film was released on January 25th 2008 in the US .

The concept of the film is based on an ancient Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones - Happiness (Whitaker), Pleasure (Fraser), Sorrow (Gellar), and Love (Bacon). The proverb speaks of these emotions, not as isolated fragments of feelings, but as elements that make up the whole of the human existence. Each of the four main protagonists is based on one of the four emotions; and like the proverb their paths are inextricably linked to each other.

None of the four main characters' actual names are mentioned in the whole film, although Gellar's stage name, Trista, is mentioned several times. ("Tristis" means "sad" in Latin.)

1 Cast
2 Plot
3 Reception
4 Home release
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Cast

Forest Whitaker as Happiness
Brendan Fraser as Pleasure
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Sorrow
Kevin Bacon as Love
Andy Garcia as Fingers
Emile Hirsch as Tony - Finger's nephew
Julie Delpy as Gina
Will Maier as Mr. Park
Clark Gregg as Henry
Cecilia Suárez
John Cho as Bart
Kelly Hu as Jiyoung
Jason Dolley as Young Pleasure
Todd Stashwick as Frank
Jon Bernthal as Interviewer

[edit] Plot

Each of the elements of life (Happiness/Pleasure/Sorrow/Love) is portrayed using different characters with Andy Garcia (Fingers) playing the character that intertwines all four individuals.

Happiness

Forrest Whitaker plays 'Happiness', a businessman who loves butterflies. When he accidentally overhears a sure bet at a horse race he decides to bet it all. Unfortunately he loses the bet and gets caught by Andy Garcia (Fingers) who runs that gambling/betting pool.

Fingers derives his name from his habit of cutting off the fingers of those who don’t pay back their debts. When Fingers threatens Whitaker that he will cut off his fingers if he doesn’t pay his debt of $50,000, Whitaker decides to rob a bank. After fleeing to a roof the police orders him to drop his gun. He does not comply and is killed by the police. His bag with money falls on the street. When he hits the ground his jacket is spread out making him look like a butterfly.

Pleasure

Brendan Fraser plays 'Pleasure', a man with a sad past and an ability to foresee the future of the people he meets, an ability that deprives him of the pleasure of enjoying the surprises in life. When he was young, he and his brother engaged in a street fight with other teenagers. Fraser won the fight but found his brother killed in the crossfire. Fraser often has flashbacks of this scene throughout the movie. Later in his life, Fraser joins Finger's gang and becomes one of Finger's favorites due mostly to Fraser's ability to foresee the future of everyone he meets except for one person - 'Sorrow'.

Sorrow

Sarah Michelle Gellar plays 'Sorrow', a famous pop singer and dancer with the stagename "Trista" who works with a manager who is indebted to Fingers. The manager, instead of paying of his debt in cash, gives Gellar's contract to Fingers. Gellar escapes from Fingers and meets Fraser. Fingers, naturally, has already ordered his team to find Gellar. In the meantime, Fraser helps Gellar by letting her stay in his house noting that his house is the only place where Fingers wouldn't search.

Love

Kevin Bacon plays 'Love', a doctor that is in love with his longtime friend (Julie Delpy) but is too afraid to let her know. Julie gets bitten by a poisonous snake and desperately needs a rare form of blood that only Gellar has. When Gellar comes to the hospital after being injured trying to escape from Fingers and while she is about to jump from a roof to commit suicide, Bacon saves her and she helps him by providing blood for a transfusion.

[edit] Reception

American critics gave the film generally negative reviews. As of April 1, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 14% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 21 reviews.^[1]. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 9 reviews.^[2]

However, outside of the USA, critics were mostly more favourable.