Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
Wild At Heart
"Breathe In" is Drake Doremus' third film to play at Sundance and stars Guy Pierce as a high school music teacher Keith Reynolds who desperately wants to land a job in a symphony and is feeling he is not living up to his potential. He loves his wife and daughter but the undercurrent of unrealized dreams does hover over his life and threatened to tear apart his marriage. Entering into their life is British foreign exchange student Sophie (Felicity Jones), a piano prodigy that ignites a spark in Mr Reynolds life.
The movie doesn't really have a character to root for as everyone seems flawed in some way but Doremus makes up for this getting great performances from the cast, esp Pierce and the use of close ups and a nice pace to draw us into the characters emotions. The relationship between Mr Reynolds and Sophie grows slowly through passing glances and moments of sharing that build as both characters have been bereft of these type of contact with another person for a long time. They are like two moths being puled towards the same flame and we wonder when they will burn.
This films doesn't hit us over the head with overdone emotions or loud conflicts and this might be hard for some viewers to deal with. It is nice to have a film that just allows the actors to carefully bring us into this affair and lets us feel like we are part of the emotions. The film does lack a lot in the actual story and sometimes can feel it is losing itself, but that doesn't prevent it from being an engaging piece. Given time and effort, this film delivers a compelling, emotional piece of life story and Pierce shows why he is such a wonderfully under-rated actor.
This is not for everyone but if you enjoy films like "Elephant"by Van Sant, this is right up your alley so take the time to see this film which opened at the Uptown Palladium 12 today. It feels like a movie that could take place with someone you know.
I give it a B.
In other movie news, on monday, March 31st, outside the lovely Detroit Opera House, from 11AM-1PM, you can check out the Firebreather Car from the upcoming supernatural adventure film "jinn". So celebrate Tigers opening day filmmaker/director.designer Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad will also be on site. There will be an opportunity to win tickets to the North American premiere.
