Camden movies: The Air I breathe | Directed by Jieho Lee | Forest Whitaker Sarah Michell Geller Kevin Baconitaker

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 15 May 2008

Forest Whitaker embodies Happiness

Camden cinema | The Air I Breathe movie review | Jieho Lee| Starring Forest Whitaker and Kevin Bacon

THE AIR I BREATHE
Directed by Jieho Lee
Certificate 15

HAPPINESS, Pleasure, Sorrow, Love. Based on an ancient Chinese proverb about the four pillars of life, these emotions are brought alive by Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kevin Bacon, in stories interconnected like a complex game of snakes and ladders.
Now you go up into euphoria, now you go down into fear and violence.
The game opens with Forest Whitaker embodying Happiness as a sweaty stockbroker fed up with his lonely life. In a rash moment he bets his savings on a horse – and winds up owing mob boss Fingers (Andy Garcia at his menacing best) a heap of money.
Brendan Fraser is Pleasure, a henchman working for Fingers who becomes involved with Sorrow (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a flaky alcoholic celebrity whose contract has been bought up by the mobster.
The best is saved for last with Kevin Bacon as Love, playing a doctor pining for the lovely Gina (Julie Delpy), a researcher who gets bitten by a poisonous snake and given 24 hours to live.
Somehow all these strands come together in director Jieho Lee’s film-noirish drama, with an A-list cast doing their best to make it believable.
The fact they almost succeed is tribute indeed, though the contrived coincidences do stretch credulity a breath too far.

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