Still Breathing

If you are not a sensitive guy - don't bother. Otherwise, this film is a treat. You must see the film in its entirety or you will not get it. Super casting job - I do not know of any others who could have handled the parts so well. A true look beyond the superficial plastic sides of characters we usually see. A truly pleasing experience to watch. Brendan Frasier and Joanna Going have much more going for them then the typical fluff of Hollywood types and this movie displays their depth well. Celeste Holm is enchanting and the supporting cast add much color and flavor.

The premise - sweet-natured, goofy guy gradually wins over cynical, sophisticated girl - has been around a long time, but if you get the right people involved and you're working with a patient, thoughtful script, it's foolproof. You can't go wrong. "Still Breathing" is a perfect example of this.

A cool breeze of delicate moments, tender surprises and disarming understatement, it achieves a magic that clunkers like "Simply Irresistable" can only dream about. It understands that romantic comedies are all about the hesitations, the silences, the searching looks - NOT contrived situations and screwball antics.

It also realizes that the actors who are paired have to BELIEVE in the material, in each other, and aren't just there because their agents thought it would be a good career move. Brendan Fraser and Joanna Going trust the script completely, they surrender to it. You can tell by the offhand, unforced way Fraser says his lines - knowing there's really no way he can foul them up. And Going; who looks like Winona Ryder, Teri Hatcher and Alyssa Milano (depending on the angle) shows the emotional turbulence of going from someone who is very sure of herself to suddenly not being very sure about anything at all. She's lost her innocence, then found it again but it's been so long she's lost it that she has a hard time recognizing it. It's also great to see veteran actress Celeste Holm infusing the film with her sparkle and intelligence.

A real pleasant surprise, you just find yourself melting into its gentle rhythms and not wanting it to end.

I absolutely LOVED this movie. The way it was filmed was so beautiful. It made me want to visit Texas. I was thrilled to see Joanna Going. She was on a soap opera I used to watch a looooong time ago. She is as beautiful as ever. The characters are believable. Joanna Going's character, Roz, is a con artist but instead of disliking her you feel sympathy for her. I would watch this movie again and again. The music weaves throughout the film and makes you feel good.

Combining eccentricity with serendipity, Still Breathing is still, almost ten years after it was first released, one of the best fate-filled and wistfully magical love stories of all time. Take one somewhat unusual street performer who is mystically drawn towards his soul mate - a hardened con artist miles away, and then back their journey towards, away and towards one another with a gorgeous soundtrack that moves effortlessly from Chopin to Carly Simon, and you've got one very touching if not markedly unique story. Fraser is great as the slightly odd lovestruck suitor as is Going, who clearly portrays her struggle with losing the grip on her tough anti-emotion veneer as it starts to crumble under Fraser's enticing conviction. The lovely locale of San Antonio, TX also adds to the charm of this special film that will leave you wondering if one soul is truly destined to be, exclusively, with another.

I loved this film. It is quirky, but one of the most romantic films I've seen. It has a slow methodical pace, similar to The Notebook and follows the get together of an artistic man and a woman of bad sorts shall we say. But in the end, it is an intelligent romance, very dissimilar to the Hallmark factory.