seedpetal Review of Breathe In

Breathe In (2013)

If only the writing were as good as the soundtrack

[4/10 · 25 April 2015]

This is the story of a suburban family that takes in a foreign exchange student from the UK and how their worlds got turned upside-down in that time. The fact is, their worlds were already crashing in around them, but no one was willing to notice anything beyond the board game playing, family picture taking facade they put on. The teenage daughter had already had sex with a guy she had a crush on but wouldn't commit to her because he was too busy blabbing their business to everyone. The father was living a mundane life teaching instead of playing music. The mother seemed oblivious to any of the feelings the other two are having. The exchange student arrives, catches the eye of the daughter's crush, as well as her own father's. As the plot unfolds, I was able to predict all of the major happenings that occurred. The daughter's self- destructive, self- absorbed, alcohol induced over emotion led her to a serious car crash when she ends up losing it. The crush tries to hook up with the exchange student, and when she refuses, he smears her name across the school. And the wife smashes her cookie jar collection when she finally realizes what's going on under her nose between her husband and this 18 year old girl. I found it quite contradicting that the husband finally gets the chair he wanted and the job he has been dreaming of, and is willing to throw it all away the next day by running away with a teenager he had essentially just met. It's hard to see him in a good light when he is willing to do such a thing to his family. I kept desperately hoping that the connection between the leads was more of a father daughter connection, because she had lost her dad and uncle, and his own daughter wasn't into music. My hopes were dashed when they became physical and i found it creepy and unnecessary. they could have gone a totally different way with this and made the film more touching and inspiring. Instead, it bread negativity with no solution. Having said all of that, the scenery was absolutely beautiful, and the score was magnificent. The acting was also superb. Each actor played their character to a T and it was very believable. However, wish I hadn't wasted my time with this one.