A sombre, low-key, male mid-life crisis drama, full of meaningful glances, unspoken resentment and underlying regret.

| Sep 5, 2017

There's something flimsy and unformed at these characters' cores, something that no amount of jumpy close-ups, skittering sideways glances, and rainy music can make up for.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2014

Fine performances barely make up for this melodrama's narrative bankruptcy.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Apr 17, 2014

Buoyed by some nicely nuanced performances (especially by Pearce and Amy Ryan as his dream-dashing wife), Breathe In never quite rises above its predictable potboiler premise.

| Original Score: B | Apr 4, 2014

Every moment between stars Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones feels so much like an explosion about to go off that viewers may hesitate to so much as take a breath at the wrong time for fear of disturbing the film's delicate equilibrium.

| Apr 3, 2014

A breathy tale of a not-quite love affair, Drake Doremus' "Breathe In" is yet another skillfully acted indie drama that's never quite good enough to be memorable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 3, 2014

The film needs more help than it gets from the script, which turns on facile coincidence and dwindles in originality as it moves toward its climax.

Full Review | Apr 3, 2014

Although Jones and Pearce are interesting when onscreen alone, their chemistry is slightly off.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 3, 2014

Enough with the dramas about frustrated older men seeking a second chance at life and love through a barely legal girl. Please.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 1, 2014

Falters with a bland and predictable emotional connection.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 31, 2014

Doremus' beautifully shot, naturalistic style means there are no soap-opera hysterics, and he gets strong performances from all involved...But it's hard to get over the fact that Jones, who was born in 1983, is far too old to play a high school student.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 28, 2014

Drake Doremus and his writing partner Ben York Jones' working method is unorthodox... and earlier films have established them as a creative team who have much on the ball...

| Original Score: 2.1/2 | Mar 28, 2014

Felicity Jones, who is actually 30, makes Sophie both irresistible and real, a somewhat open book of wonder and innate wisdom.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 28, 2014

Breathe In is all simmer, no boil, despite an abrupt, overwrought, agonizing emotional climax that's too much, too late.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 27, 2014

"Breathe In" is a good enough movie that you wish the screenplay had further fleshed out its characters and relationships and emerged as more than a skillful sketch.

| Mar 27, 2014

It's a maddening mix of realistic characters, fine performances, ponderous pacing and oppressive mood lighting, none of which serve to cover up one central, glaring problem: a romance that never feels real.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 27, 2014

This indie drama by Drake Doremus impressed me with the amount of mileage it gets from the simple premise without the affair even being consummated.

| Mar 27, 2014

There's low-key, and then there's limp.

| Original Score: D+ | Mar 27, 2014

Sometimes, when it comes to getting across specific themes or ideas, creating a mood can do even more than developing a story or writing dialogue.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 27, 2014

The May-December romance is an overworked genre, but steady hands guide this one with intelligence to a sad but satisfactory conclusion.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 27, 2014