Breathing Room (2008) Reviews

• Boring, Unoriginal, Pointless and Disappointing

  claudio_carvalho2009-06-10

  A group of fourteen strangers wearing electronic necklaces are locked in a large room without any previous explanation. Sooner they are informed by a man in a monitor that they are participating of a deadly game, where the prize of the winner would be his or her own life, but they should follow certain rules to stay alive. Further, the man tells that there is one rapist, one murdered and one pedophile among them. Under the leadership of Lee (Michael McLafferty), the contestants try to resolve their own suspicions to survive. After the original 1997 "Cube", there are many rip-offs of strangers locked in an environment participating of a sick game, like for example the franchise "Saw"; or "House of 9" or the 2006 "Unknown"; therefore, "Breathing Room" is unoriginal. Unfortunately "Breathing Room" is not even a "good rip-off" because the story is boring and annoying in some moments; and the unexplained conclusion of the scientific experiment the team was submitted is pointless and disappointing. Who are the scientists? What is the objective of the sadistic experiment? Why those persons have been selected to participate? The viewer has no answer for these simple questions; therefore the story and the screenplay absolutely fail. In the awesome 2001 "Das Experiment", there is a previous explanation for teaming-up the guinea pigs. However the acting is great and the actors and actresses are able to transmit their claustrophobic tension and pain to the viewers. My vote is four. Title (Brazil): "O Quarto do Inferno" ("The Hell's Room")

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• Ii felt like a lot of things where missing

  Lokado2008-07-15

  I started to watch it with high expectations, the overall image i got from it was that it had good potential. however, when I watched the video it felt like there was no real connections to the characters, they all die off to fast and a lot of the story is left to guesswork. It felt like most of the movie was trivial and just extra time fill. It's not that i mind that they kill people, but its just that somehow, their deaths didn't seem to be of any impact (on the story) whatsoever. The end(which i will not discuss further) didn't satisfy me at all. I personally figured that it would be something like "the cube", but that was (in my opinion) a hope that I had set to high. After having sat through the whole movie I didn't feel like i had really enjoyed myself, the movie has some exciting parts but somehow they managed to mess it up. All in all, not a movie that i'd recommend unless you really have nothing better to do.

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• Some suspense, although the game is rather stupid

  extracoolguy12008-07-04

  Early on in the movie we learn that there are a bunch of people kidnapped and locked in a room. The 'host' is playing a 'game' with them, and it's the 'contestants' job to figure out whats going on. This movie kind of reminded me of the movie Saw(alone with its sequels). The problem is that the Saw movies teach a lesson in a way because if the individual is smart enough/deserves/wants to live, then they end up living. This isn't really like that. Although the contestants really did nothing wrong, only 1, at most, will survive. The contestants don't really stand a chance from the beginning. The suspense was fairly good - which is the main reason i gave it a 5. Its not a film you'll fall asleep while watching and certainly interesting to watch. Acting was alright. However a big problem was the ending. The ending was not something I predicted, however, it made me feel unfulfilled and shows the stupidity of this 'game'. There was also not much of a climax - it always felt like they were building to something. It felt like they should have had a bigger climax before the ending. And then the ending comes, and it wasn't that shocking. Overall, good concept, early and middle parts of the movie were good, but the ending was weak. 5/10

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• holds no surprises

  therefdotcom2008-07-14

  this movie can be categorized into my favorite genre: "x people find themselves stuck in a room for no apparent reason to find out that they are part of some kind of cruel game whose rules they don't know yet". unfortunately this "genre" so far has only brought too much lame attempts and so little interesting concepts. so far i have enjoyed cube, saw (1-x), red room (1&2) and house of nine. the last one gets kinda boring after a while, but seen in full length makes up for it. there are some major flaws in this piece from the very beginning. the amateurish look, feel, acting, lightning, cut and scene building might amuse/annoy on the first look, but with a strong story could have been ignored. that on closer look is not the major problem here. the script does not work on a full concept basis, it either lives from scene to scene which loses it's thrill within the first 30 minutes. even though the players get hints about the rules and about the game itself, if you try to put the puzzle together you will find that there really is nothing to gain in this "game", which is a letdown. when compared to the other mentioned movies it becomes clear, that the rules themselves are bogus, the scenario is senseless and that even the choice of contestants is random. in the other mentioned movies there are clear rules, a more or less clear goal, every player has a function within the game, in most cases we even get explained what function each player has within the games. this is not the case here. even more the outcome of the movie should become clear to everyone that is familiar with this kind of movies. this lick mostly tries to live by the suspense how the writers explain everything in the end. i lost interest after 60 minutes as i already have figured that ending out and not to my surprise my conclusion was exactly what was shown at the end of the movie. some of this flaws i have already seen in "house of 9" which also gets pretty annoying towards the end, but eventually makes up for it with a clever conclusion. i find this movie too effordless on an objective level and it is even more disappointing keeping in mind that so many movies before already had that concept and that the writers still did not even try to make this conclusive or clever. movies like that up to a certain point live or die by the ending/conclusion. this one fails to deliver.

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• Concept is trite but the execution is good

  refdan2008-07-04

  The film begins with a naked woman entering a room of strangers with in a warehouse type of setting. The strangers approach her and begin asking questions about who she is and what does she know about why she is here and what it's all about. The rest of the film involves learning about each other and little more about the "puzzle" of why they are here. The premise is that there is game being played with the characters' lives. There are rules. If you break the rules, you die. The plot is simple, but the interactions of the "players" is what keeps it interesting. Each "player" is unique and may or may not have something to hide. I found the story interesting, but contrived. Some of the characters were a bit over-the-top for my taste, but most of them conveyed the fear, anger, and despair quite convincingly. The end of the film was a disappointment to me for reasons I won't divulge here. I credit the producers for developing a good character study with very little investment. Good cinema doesn't always have to cost millions. If you like a bare bones type production about human behavior in stressful conditions, then I recommend this to you.

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