In outline, “Breathe In” sounds like a lungful of stale air: A musician who traded rock for a mortgage is stuck in a coma called middle age when he is unexpectedly revived by youth’s sweet kiss.
Top performances by Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, though, make the film emotionally rich. Pearce is a music teacher who wishes he could persuade his wife (Amy Ryan) that, after their daughter (Mackenzie Davis) leaves for college, the two of them should move from the suburbs back to New York City. The arrival of an unnervingly mature English exchange student (Jones) in his house seems to give human form to his longing for freedom.
Jones has a purity about her that’s transfixing. It’s easy to picture a stuck man coming unglued by her, and the two leads’ fondness for each other develops with a sublime ache.