Don't
Breathe
Jane Levy stars as Rocky – a single mother in Detroit who
teams up with her boyfriend, Money (Daniel Zovatto), and her friend who
pines away to be more, Alex (Dylan Minnette), to rob homes all over the
city.
Money has been told about a house in a vacant part of Detroit where a
blind man (Stephen Lang) lives all by himself with his dog and a huge
stack of cash.
Thinking this could be an easy score and the one that will make all of
their dreams come true, the gang decides to carry out the heist, but
soon gets much more than it bargained for.
Don’t
Breathe succeeds when it
doesn’t try to be too complicated and conventional.
Writer/director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues set up a
simple, but compelling scenario as the three kids carry out a dastardly
plan and find themselves facing some sort of karmic retribution for
attempting to take advantage of a blind person.
Lang is fantastic as the man who is much tougher, scarier and dangerous
than any of those kids could imagine. He is perfectly intimidating
while barely saying a word. It’s all about intensity and raw
nastiness.
The only actor who is better in Don’t
Breathe is the dog! Alvarez does
a wonderful job creating spine tingling scenes with this dog frothing
at the mouth and seeking to take a bite out of these thieves in the
most imaginative of ways. These are the best moments in the movie!
However, Alvarez and Sayagues go too far with too many twists and too
many additional scenes. As they attempt to complicate matters, it
dilutes the movie and leaves the audience wondering when it might end
as each new development is weaker than the last.
Yet, the biggest mistake is trying to make a hero out of any of these
characters.
The kids are thieves no matter how bad you feel for their background or
circumstances, while the blind man reveals himself to be a nasty dude.
Alvarez should have gone along with that stream of thought instead of
trying to be more conventional. By the time he attempts convention,
it’s too late to have a positive impact.
Don’t
Breathe is rated R for terror, violence, disturbing content, and
language including sexual references.
88 Minutes
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