IN “The Air I Breathe,” Brendan Fraser is Pleasure, Sarah Michelle Gellar is Sorrow, Kevin Bacon is Love, Forest Whitaker is Happiness, and the director is Pretension.
Four interconnected stories about states of mind add up to nothing much in a drama that features lots of name actors and frenetic camerawork trying to churn up interest in a few bits of pulp fiction with feeble threads tying them together.
Situations get increasingly ridiculous, and none of the characters ever seems like anything but a screenwriter’s sketch.
The one mildly intriguing situation is that of a hit man who keeps seeing flashes of the future that he can’t do anything about – unless he can. His psychic powers, however, are quickly shunted to the side as his episode becomes the kind of violent gangster story you’ve seen a thousand times.
Running time: 97 minutes. Rated R (violence, profanity, sexual content, nudity). At the Empire and the Loews Village.