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Can you imagine a world where the very air we breathe is in short supply? That’s the grim reality of the futuristic setting in the new sci-fi thriller Breathe.
The film is set in the year 2039 in Brooklyn. Due to environmental pollution, the oxygen levels on Earth have plummeted to dangerous lows. Most of the planet’s surface is now uninhabitable. A few scattered survivors remain, fighting desperation on a daily basis in their struggle to access the limited reserves of breathable air.
We meet scientist Darius, who has created a self-sustaining bunker for himself, his wife Maya, and their teenage daughter Zora. Inside its walls, thanks to Darius’ oxygen generator, they can breathe freely. But when Darius goes missing one day during an expedition to the surface, it’s up to Maya and Zora to carry on alone.
Their shelter and way of life are thrown into chaos with the unexpected arrival of two strangers, Tess and Lucas, pleading for help. Tess claims to have worked with Darius, but can she be trusted? A tense standoff and clashes of will ensue as the story plays out.
Director Stefon Bristol brings this suffocating world visually to life through striking amber-tinted cinematography that conveys the bleak, contaminated atmosphere outside. He also assembles a talented cast, including Jennifer Hudson, Milla Jovovich and Quvenzhané Wallis. But while Breathe has its suspenseful moments, some have criticized its thinly written characters and plot contrivances for undercutting the compelling premise. Despite limitations of budget, this new film offers viewers 93 minutes of thought-provoking survival drama, if not always a completely smooth ride.
Capturing a Crumbling World
Stefon Bristol brings the grimy world of Breathe to life through striking visuals. With a limited budget, he crafts an ominous atmosphere that feels both convincing yet ominous.
Bristol coats the outside scenes in a yellow-orange filter, as if a toxic haze hangs permanently over the landscape. It perfectly captures the barren, contaminated setting where oxygen is scarce. Just looking at the color makes you feel like you’re struggling to breathe. The viewer really believes the planet’s surface is now uninhabitable.
A few establishing shots introduce the derelict ruins of New York City in this future time. Crumbling skyscrapers stand like skeletons against polluted skies. Streets lie empty and rusting vehicles sit abandoned. These small glimpses are enough to effectively set the scene, without expensive CGI environments.
Inside the characters’ shelter, Bristol removes the amber tint to indicate safety from the hostile outside. But he maintains a gloomy tone through dim lighting and functional interior spaces. It emphasizes both the coziness and isolation of their sealed-off situation.
With such a pared-down setting, Bristol relies on creative framing and camerawork to build suspense. He draws focus to oxygen tanks and ventilation masks, constantly reminding viewers of the characters’ fragile breathing conditions. It makes even simple actions feel high-stakes.
Throughout, Bristol’s color palette and production design keep audiences immersed in this inhospitable future world. On a tight budget, he crafts a bleak yet convincing dystopian atmosphere.
Developing the Characters
Maya and Zora anchor the film with their realistic bond. Jennifer Hudson brings grit and vulnerability to Maya as she protects her daughter in this dangerous world. You understand her distrust of outsiders trying to threaten what’s hers. Quvenzhané Wallis is wonderful too – inquisitive as a teen should be, but still bearing the weight of their situation. Their scenes together are the most well-rounded, even if you wish we learned more about Maya’s past with Darius.
Milla Jovovich’s Tess keeps viewers guessing with an ambiguous performance. Is she truly on a rescue mission or does she want something more? You can’t take your eyes off her. In contrast, Sam Worthington’s Lucas comes across flat and one-dimensional. His constant panic feels over-acted and adds little. More dimension was needed from these key outsiders shaking up the story.
Common is missed as the absent father figure Darius. His past inventions drive the plot but flashbacks could have offered welcome context on this family. We never learn how or why he disappears, leaving that mystery too thinly explored.
These characters show promise but aren’t fully realized due to rushed writing. Their roles feel archetypal – the protective mother, rebellious teen, etc. Rather than motivations being told, showing more moments of understanding between them all could have made their stakes in the tension feel truly compelling. With more nuanced development, the character drama at Breathe’s core might have shone through stronger.
Maintaining the Suspense
Certain scenes really pull you in. The initial confrontation between Maya and the newcomers Tess/Lucas crackles with distrust. Jovovich plays Tess as appealing yet slippery – you’re constantly reevaluating her motives. The pair’s desperation to scrounge oxygen gives their demands an edge. Other tense moments include a risky dash into the contaminated outdoors and scenes of the group holding their breath as toxins creep in.
It’s a shame more of the film doesn’t grip this tightly. A lot of time is spent on family drama between Maya and Zora in the early going. While their bond grounds the story, their arguments feel mild, stalling the promised threats. By the time others do show up demanding help, you may have lost steam.
Unfortunately, just as intrigue starts cooking, odd plot turns squash it. Crucial backstories are glossed over messily. Mystery boxes are opened containing Deus ex machinas rather than satisfactory resolutions. Logic sometimes flees, like one character making brain-scratching decisions off a single exchange. The climactic clash aims for a gutpunch but lands with a shrug.
It’s a letdown, because foundations are there. Tense standalone scenes show what Breathe could have been – a claustrophobic slow-burner expertly ramping unease. But pacing drags in acts one and three, dissipating worry over characters’ fates. With tighter sequencing of reveals and incidents earning their payoffs, this could have left audiences feeling as on edge as its survivors fighting to take every breath. As is, potential oxygen runs out halfway.
Survival and Suspicion
The story of Breathe seems crafted to explore important themes of trust and cooperation between survivors in a crisis. In a ravaged world where every breath is precious, how do people decide who to let into their sanctuary? And what happens when scarcity breeds selfishness over solidarity?
We get intriguing hints that director Stefon Bristol wanted to say something about society. The timing of the film’s setting just a couple decades from now echoes our current climate anxieties. Meanwhile, Zora’s gift from her father of Malcolm X’s autobiography plants seeds of a message. In such a ruthless environment, how do communities form without also forming divisions?
It’s a shame these themes are never fully cultivated. At first, the standoff between Maya and the outsiders Tess and Lucas teases out complex questions of who to believe and whether helping others compromises one’s own. But the story simplifies into a clearer “good vs. bad” conflict by the end. We don’t learn enough about either group’s full circumstances and motives to pass much judgment.
Some of this subtlety might have emerged with more character development. But Maya, Zora and the strangers remain fairly two-dimensional. The focus stays on their life-or-death struggle amid dwindling oxygen rather than examining why these survivors interact as they do.
Overall, Breathe establishes an intriguing backdrop to explore heavier ideas, yet ultimately lacks the nuance or runtime to cultivate its thematic seeds into anything truly profound. With a bit more care, this could have been a thoughtful thriller. As is, its commentary remains ghostly and unclear.
The Vision and Limitations of Directing Breathe
Director Stefon Bristol brings a strong visual style to Breathe. The dystopian setting of a near-future New York with ruined landscapes and constantly donning breathing masks to survive outdoors is portrayed powerfully through smothering orange filters. This helps viewers feel the suffocation of the movie’s world – I could nearly feel myself gasping for air watching certain scenes.
Bristol also crafts some engaging dramatics from the core standoff between Jennifer Hudson’s Maya and the outsiders led by Milla Jovovich. Scenes of the two parties engaged in a battle of wills through an airtight door had my pulse increasing, wondering how they’d resolve their distrust. I appreciated how he extracts rising tension from such a confined space.
However, Bristol faces limitations as the film’s director. Where he excels imagistically, the narrative feels disjointed. Tonal shifts like abruptly comedic character exchanges undermine otherwise taut moments. Plot points also take shortcuts, like ominous foreshadowing that’s paid off in an unsatisfying reveal.
While clearly envisioned as a taut sci-fi thriller, Breathe winds up muddled by these issues. I can see Bristol striving for layered themes around community and survival amid crisis. But constraints leave some nuance on the cutting room floor, reducing the story to a simpler conflict faster than it should.
The director highlights key strengths in crafting unsettling dystopian atmospherics. But tight resources may have constrained fully realizing his ambitions here. With a bit more scope to explore deeper arcs, Breathe could have been a taut, thought-provoking work under Bristol’s guiding gaze. As is, visual flair can only carry a film so far in place of a cohesive narrative.
The Lost Potential of “Breathe”
Breathe certainly shows glimpses of promise with its solid cast and intriguing concept. In a devastated world where oxygen is scarce, survival hangs by a thread each time one goes outside without the aid of breathing apparatuses. Director Stefon Bristol establishes this haunting atmosphere effectively.
However, for a film exploring such an compelling premise, Breathe ultimately feels like it falls short of delivering on its potential. Where it admirably sets up tensions and dilemmas, the writing struggles to sustain this over a tight runtime. Key revelations appear rushed or implausible, straining the credibility of events.
More focus on developing characters and their motivations could have elevated the material. We get surface impressions of the survivors, but knowing them on a deeper level would have us more invested in their fates. The philosophical corners the storyline hints at, like what people might do in dire straits, also beg for more exploration.
Had the film taken more time tightening its execution, we might have had a memorable, thought-provoking thriller on our hands. As it stands, Breathe skims the surface of big ideas instead of plunging us into their depths. The solid directing and acting occasionally lift scenes above these issues, but they’re not enough to fully compensate.
With a bit more polish to the script, Breathe could have delivered the taut, tense chronicle its setup teases. As a corner has been turned to a new decade, it’s a reminder that even modest sci-fi tales need strong, streamlined writing to truly sing. With refinement, this might have been a gem of the genre.
The Review
Breathe
While Breathe shows glimpses of promise through its memorable visuals and talented cast, it ultimately fails to live up to its compelling dystopian premise due to rushed storytelling and underdeveloped characters. With a tighter script that explores its philosophical themes in more depth, this could have been a gripping sci-fi thriller. As it stands, Breathe leaves its intriguing setup only partially realized.
PROS
- Engaging concept of a post-apocalyptic world with little breathable air
- Strong visual aesthetic with its burnt orange coloring
- Solid performances from the lead cast particularly Jennifer Hudson
CONS
- Thin, underdeveloped characters
- Abrupt, implausible plot developments
- Fails to fully examine intriguing philosophical themes
