Breathe In (2013)

Breathe In (2013) I had a great time; I wasn’t bored for a second, and yet, there is something missing for this film to be an undisputed masterpiece—there is really not much missing, maybe I would have liked more.

This film does not follow the usual clichés and standards, and this is the first time I have seen a film about adultery that looks so pure; certainly, we see that the wife and daughter of the main protagonist are quite unbearable, so we only want him to cheat on her, leave her, run away… but the film also asks the eternal questions like “Is love stronger than anything?”, “Can we leave everything on a whim?”, and “How much are we there for our children?” The whole thing is done in a very poetic way; for those who want to see this film, which is not really based on adultery.

Spoiler Alert!!! Here, there are no really sexual scenes, but rather sensual ones, and even the most violent scenes are full of love and respect—what I mean by that is that no one uses their anger or hatred to really hurt the other.

I’ll start with Felicity Jones; she was quickly an actress that critics decided to follow, as she was so talented from the start, and I personally have only seen about three films with her and I loved them all, as well as A Wonderful Story of Time (2014), and I loved True Story, which is also probably James Franco‘s best film, produced by the great Brad Pitt, who also knows what he’s doing, whether it’s in terms of film choices or roles; so…

I think she knows how to choose her films as well as being excellent. The tension between her and Guy Pearce is so palpable—it’s one of the most beautiful loves I’ve seen in cinema. I’ve never been a big fan of Guy Pearce, but I saw Equals recently, in which I really liked him, so I want to see Memento, L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker with the very good Jeremy Renner and the excellent Ralph Fiennes, but I also want to see Memory. Well… everyone makes mistakes, and let’s face it, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) is really bad; Kyle MacLachlan is in it, but we don’t see him for more than 5 minutes, so if you want to see this film only for him, you’re missing out!

Amy Ryan has an interesting role—she seems to be the unbearable woman, but the more the film progresses, the more we see her qualities; the film showed me that it’s not just about being good or bad, as every bad person makes good choices and every good person makes bad choices. She stayed with her husband for love, without endorsing his love for music, because she has always been down to earth, and you can’t do what you want to do without money and without being sure of making money; she has her own opinions, her own way of seeing, and her own way of doing things, and I had huge respect for this woman at the end of the film—as you see your world being turned upside down, but you don’t let yourself be dominated by anger… I say “hats off!”

Mackenzie Davis: likeable but a little annoying, but what could be more normal? She’s a teenager experimenting and having love affairs; she was a bit non-existent at several points in the film, but it’s when she shows us her emotions that I realized what a good actress she is—she manages to play simply with her eyes.

And finally: Matthew Daddario! He’s the hunk of the film—dark, in the role of a seducer who can’t get the one he wants, and what’s more, he can’t stand defeat. We see him at many small moments during the film, and his character reinforces the drama that happens to the family. That’s it! I hope there will be more films like this in the future.