With his debut feature film, writer/director Jieho Lee has assembled an impressive cast to star in a film which is heavily influenced by the likes of Paul Haggis’ Crash and the films of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (21 Grams).

The plot features several interweaving storylines: Happiness (Forrest Whitaker) is a stock broker, who in an attempt to rid himself of his mundane life, bets a large amount of borrowed money on a fixed horse race which he loses, facing the wrath of small time yet ruthless gangster Fingers (Andy Garcia); Pleasure (Brendan Fraser), a clairvoyant debt collector for Fingers, unexpectedly falls in love with rising pop star Sorrow (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who due to her managers shady dealings, falls under the ownership of Fingers; and Love (Kevin Bacon) must save the life of the woman he loves (Julie Delpy).    

Underneath its absurd philosophical ramblings about fate and destiny lies the potential for a great film.

Yet despite some good performances -   Forrest Whitaker displays vast emotional depth, Brendan Fraser is very good in a subdued tough guy role, & Andy Garcia sends chills in his most brutal depiction of a gangster yet – The Air I Breathe fails to reach its plausible promise, thanks to some extremely irritable and illogical plot and character developments.

Pretentious in its tone, ambitious in its goals, and incompetent in its execution, The Air I Breathe is a polluted mess despite its good intentions.