That loud thud you hear in the background is the sound of this mercilessly dull pseudo-philosophical crime drama crashing and burning. In The Air I Breathe, first-time writer/director Jieho Lee manages to misuse and misdirect an entire ensemble of venerable pros (Forest Whitaker, Andy Garcia, Kevin Bacon, Emile Hirsch, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and more) while simultaneously draining any and all fun that may have been had with this lame, pulpy mash up between the sensibilities of Altman and Tarantino (on a bad day, mind you) by butchering its cheeseball pleasures with long winded and utterly asinine philosophical musings. Rather than just savoring the simple pleasures of familiar tales of lone sharks, desperate men, and sinful deeds, Lee attempts to mold his film into a metaphor for an unexplained Chinese proverb that frames each of the four main characters in the light of one of several distinct principles: Happiness (Whitaker), Pleasure (Fraser), Sorrow (Gellar), and Love (Bacon).The big picture idea is that none of these 4 emotions can exist without the other 3 and so too flow seamlessly through these characters just as these characters flow seamlessly through the vignette style film like fibers in a larger tapestry. The bad news here is that the tapestry sucks. Not one of the stories really connects. There are a few salvaging moments and some admirable attempts at sincerity by the talented cast (most notably Whitaker as an average joe turned humorously inept bank robber), but each story is so implausible and each thread that connects them is so painfully stretched into position, that every single second seems forced. Lee seems to have had admirable ambitions in creating a complex crime film that might stand apart from the sea of nondescript replicas out there, but unfortunately he'd be deluded to consider his finished product a standout in any way other than its simple, unforgivable lack of quality writing and directing. This is another one of those age-old tales of a first timer reaching for the stars and coming back empty handed. Perhaps Lee's imagination will take him to more interesting places in the future, but for now he's absolutely 0 for 1.
Grade: D
