Breathe is the directorial debut of motion-capture artist Andy Serkis, and if there was any justice in this world, it would be his last. [there isn’t: he’s already got a live-action Jungle Book slated next – but at least he seems uniquely qualified for that]
It’s the based-on-a-true-story of Robin and Diana Cavendish, an adventurous, fun-loving couple who are brought low when Robin (Andrew Garfield) is suddenly and irrevocably paralyzed by polio. He wants to die, but she wants their unborn son to know him, so they compromise: she springs him from the hospital, and he does his best to stop being so gosh darn glum. He’s the first of his kind to live away from a hospital setting, and it’s thanks to the devotion of his wife (Claire Foy) and the ingenuity of a friend (Hugh Bonneville) that he’s able to do more than just survive.
So yes, there’s an inspiring story in there somewhere. This is Andrew Garfield’s most 
Eddie Redmayne role yet, but he can’t quite live up to those man-in-chair heights. As his character is paralyzed from the neck down, all he has to use is his face, and of course he overuses it. I liked Foy’s performance a lot better than Garfield’s. He came off as grating; Sean called it nearly unbearable. But he’s far from the only problem with the movie. First, the script is cloying, predictable, and overly sentimental. It’s an emotional predator, designed to wring tears from your face. I refused to comply. It hits the all-too familiar beats of a biopic and doesn’t stray once from conventional story-telling. But Andy Serkis’s direction does stray from the norm, and from the tolerable. It’s shot in an ultrawide aspect ratio that I hated. I felt like I was watching a skinny rectangle at best, but often felt as though I was viewing the movie through a fishbowl. Serkis’ angles are often weird, and not quirky weird, but uncomfortable and off-putting. But I suppose the worst crimes against this little against-all-odds love story is that Serkis rushes through the prologue, the courtship, the thing that should make us understand why this guy deserves so much devotion, why their love is so strong that she’s willing to wipe his shitty bum and go without sex for the rest of her life in order to keep a suicidal man alive. It’s a crap life for her. I’m not saying it’s not worth it, just that it’s always going to be difficult. And I realized that though there are seemingly lots of movies about men being tended by loyal wives, the same is not true in reverse. Husbands cut and run. So really the movie’s most interesting character is Diana, and we know little about her. We don’t see any of her struggles or her inner life. In fact, for Breathe’s 117 minute runtime, I’m not sure we got to know anyone particularly well in this movie. And that’s really too bad.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Great review as usual!
I know it’s a money spinner but haven’t we just had a very good Jungle Book film recently?
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Yes, it’s very strange they were both green-lit at the same time. Serkis actually directed it first I believe but it’s been caught up in post for quite some time (loads of CGI of course).
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When I saw the title “Breathe”, I immediately thought of the movie “Don’t Breathe”, which I guess sums up your thoughts on what to do with it anyway.
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Seeing a trailer for this, I knew. No way.
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Well….that’s pretty much one that I am going to be avoiding, bio-ics can definitely be very good if they are done well. But I’m guessing thus really isn’t one that’s done well. Shame really. Andrew Garfield can definitely act as he has proven in Hacksaw Ridge, but this one seems to be out of his league.
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Yeah, and I’m not sure it’s even his fault.
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This was out in the theaters a while ago, wasn’t it? Or has it just been on my radar that long? It seems a bit dour to me, so it’s a skip. Probably.
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Nope, it’s just now in theatres.
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Bummer! I had high hopes!
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Urk.
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This sums up what I was expecting the film to be. I felt like a bit of a hypocrite judging it so harshly when I legitimately loved The Theory of Everything, but this just does’t look like it tries anything beyond the normal biopic path.
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I liked The Theory of Everything too. There’s just a lot less life to this one, it’s strictly conventional, tries way too hard and does way too little.
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Sounds so melodramatic.
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Just when I turn to you for depth and insight I find instead adjectives like “nearly unbearable…cloying, predictable, and overly sentimental”. You break my heart sometimes Jay. This is a beautiful film, end of story.
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