Serial Killers Reviews

Saw my Cube

Breathing Room
directed by John Suits and Gabriel Cowan
posted by Kattastrophe

 


When I was kid, I used to watch Scooby Doo and try to solve the mystery. I always wondered how Velma was so smart. She figured it out when I couldn't. Not that I'm Sherlock Holmes or anything. I just figured that after years of watching the show I'd have solved at least one mystery. It wasn't until I was older that I realized there was no mystery to solve. There was no trail of clues, no one acting suspicious, nothing. You, the viewer, were not meant to be smarter than the characters. It was just a cartoon and the characters would take you through it. They didn't need your help.

That's what it's like to watch Breathing Room. You're right there when Tonya, played by Ailsa Marshall, stumbles into the strange warehouse room. She doesn't know how she got there, nor do the other thirteen "prisoners". They were all naked when they came, but found jumpsuits in a drawer marked with... what? Marked with their names? They each had a number assigned to them that corresponded strictly to them, but I'm not sure how they came to know which jumpsuit to put on. Or why the first thirteen didn't go through all of the clothes since there seemed to be clues in each pack.

The "players", as they're referred to, all wear collars, the function of which we're not immediately made aware. There are rules and hints plastered all over the room— "Players wearing collars must not step over this line", "Players must keep their hands clean at all times", etc. Then they're given a "hint" explaining that amongst the group, there is one pedophile, one rapist, and one serial killer. But who is who? And [cue the dramatic music] can they figure it out in time?

In time? In time for what? The movie can't seem to decide if it wants to be a fast paced adrenaline flick or a psychological mindfuck. It settles somewhere between all this, fully submersing itself in the mediocrity of indecision. There's a mysterious "host" that appears on a TV screen in the ceiling whenever the lights cut out. He keeps telling the characters that the game will begin shortly. When it finally does begin, things don't change much.

The characters themselves, some of them going by their real names, others just calling themselves the number on their jumper, seemed interesting. Unfortunately, you're never really told anything about the ones that you really want to know about. They were all quirky enough to be memorable and to keep me involved in an intellectual way, but those that actually said anything about who they were sounded so phony or desperate that I had no emotional attachment to any. Except for Nine, that is. Played by Sara Tomko, she reminded of Michelle Rodriguez. I'm a sucker for tough dark-haired girls and she played it wonderfully. I kinda wish she'd been the main character because Tonya (Ailsa Marshall), while pretty and a believable, was toeing the line of scared, whiny girl a bit too much for my tastes.

So, this isn't exactly a bad movie. I actually found myself quite caught up in the mystery, trying to figure out which secrets belonged to which character, but ultimately it seemed to take its cue from other successful movies without fully understanding what made them awesome.

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