The Air I Breathe is a 2007 crime drama film and the directorial debut of Korean-American filmmaker Jieho Lee, who co-wrote the script with Bob DeRosa. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Emile Hirsch, and Forest Whitaker.
The concept of the film is based on an ancient Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones – Happiness (Whitaker), Pleasure (Fraser), Sorrow (Gellar), and Love (Bacon). The proverb speaks of these emotions, not as isolated fragments of feelings, but as elements that make up the whole of the human existence. Each of the four protagonists is based on one of the four emotions; and like the proverb their paths are inextricably linked to each other, akin to the Fingers (Garcia) of a hand. None of the four main characters' actual names are mentioned in the whole film, although Gellar's character's stage name, "Trista", is mentioned several times.
The Air I Breathe was financed by NALA Investments through its production company NALA Films, and was released on January 25, 2008 in the United States. The film received mainly negative reviews from critics, but some of the cast's performances were praised with Gellar, Garcia, and Whitaker being singled out.
Plot
Each of the elements of life is portrayed using four different people on the urban streets of Los Angeles, with Fingers (Garcia), a gangster, playing the part that intertwines all four individuals.
Happiness
Forest Whitaker plays a meek bank employee who loves butterflies. He accidentally overhears acquaintances discuss a fixed horse race, and decides to bet $50,000, borrowing from a bookie. Unfortunately he loses the bet.
The bookie, Fingers, derives his name from his habit of cutting off the fingers of those who don’t pay back their debts. Fingers threatens the bank employee while Fingers' mob enforcer visits him to collect. The mob enforcer pities the bank employee, who gives him a revolver and leaves. In desperation, the bank employee robs his own bank. While fleeing, he is slightly hit by a moving vehicle, then escapes to the top of a building. Surrounded, the police order the bank employee to drop his gun. He does not comply, throwing the money bag off the roof, and is killed by the police. When he hits the ground, his coat is spread out making him look like a butterfly.
Pleasure
Brendan Fraser plays the mob enforcer who has a tragic past and an ability to see the future of the people he meets, an ability that deprives him of the pleasure of enjoying the surprises in life. When he was young, the mob enforcer was forced to defend his younger brother in a street fight against two teenagers. The mob enforcer won the fight but found his brother lying dead. The mob enforcer often has flashbacks of this scene throughout the film. Later in life, the mob enforcer joins Fingers' gang and becomes one of his favorites due mostly to his ability. He, however, cannot see the future of Trista, a somewhat morose up-and-coming pop singer/dancer.
The mob enforcer is assigned to look after Fingers' visiting nephew Tony. He has a vision of Tony climbing a fence and falling back. To avoid trouble, he leaves Tony in a club while working (collecting protection money). Unfortunately, one of the girls that Tony is with, high on drugs, staggers into the next room. When Tony follows her, they struggle over a gun, and an older mobster gets shot. The mob enforcer rescues Tony, and they run from the henchmen, ending at the fence of the earlier vision. Tony gets away, and it is the mob enforcer who is caught by the henchmen, severely beaten, and then treated by Dr. Love (Bacon) at a hospital.