Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow, Love – An Overrated Tale

claudio_carvalho

A clumsy clerk (Forest Whitaker) overhears the conversation of three coworkers in the toilet about a fix in a horse race, and bets a large amount. He loses the bet and owes the money to the dangerous and powerful mobster Fingers (Andy Garcia). A gangster (Brendan Fraser) has the ability of foreseeing the future and works for Fingers; he is assigned to collect money for the boss with his troublemaker nephew Tony (Emile Hirsch) and is beat up by a gang. The manager of the pop-star Trista (Sarah Michelle Gellar) loses her contract to Fingers without her agreement and she is threatened by the gangster. A doctor (Kevin Bacon) seeks a blood donor that might have a rare blood type to save the life of his passion (Julie Delpy).

The weird and overrated "The Air that I Breath" uses four tales – named "Happiness", "Pleasure", "Sorrow", "Love" - that entwines characters and situations around the powerful and omnipresent gangster Fingers. The stories are unpleasant and the power of Finger is exaggerated – how could a famous pop-star be intimidated by a criminal the way Trista is? The attraction of this forgettable movie is the non-linear screenplay that hides a poor and boring story and the great cast. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Ar Que Eu Respiro" ("The Air that I Breath")

score 7/10

claudio_carvalho 17 May 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1875430/