Breathless

Released by: Anchor Bay
Released on: 8/14/2012
Director: Jesse Baget
Cast: Gina Gershon. Kelli Giddish, Wayne Duvall, Val Kilmer, Ray Liotta
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Lorna the Housewife (Gina Gershon) makes a phone cal to her best friend Tiny (Kelli Giddish) and invites her over to show her something important. When she arrives, she finds Lorna's husband Dale (Val Kilmer) out cold on the floor. He's not dead (as Lorna merely cracked him over the skull with a frying pan), the ladies secure him to a chair, and then they wake him up. It seems Dale is a scum bucket and chain-smoking Lorna suspects him of robbing a bank with the intent of leaving and not sharing the money with his wife. She invited her chain-smoking best friend over, because once she gets Dale to talk about where he hid the dough, the two women can take off and make new lives for themselves.

An accident causes Dale to be no more, and the women scheme as to what to do with his body as well as search for the money. The local sheriff (Ray Liotta) interrupts them during their “cleaning” chores, but Lorna is able to keep him from entering the house. The sheriff knows Dale had something to do with the big bank heist and wants to come in and look around, but without a search warrant he's out of luck. He decides to wait it out up the road, keeping the trailer containing the two women, well within his sights as he awaits the arrival of a warrant. So as the women figure out how to get out of their predicament, the sheriff is always a stone's throw away, watching the entire time.

The whole picture plays out almost entirely inside the doublewide trailer, with very little outside activity (mostly concerning Liotta's character), a technique that can seem tedious to some viewers. But the filmmakers do a good job in keeping the movie going at a good pace, with the help of some clever editing and camera work. Despite a couple of clunky plot devices, the story is interesting enough and takes a number of turns that may or may not be expected which also helps the movie from getting stale.

An item not expected from the box copy and artwork may please some that might poo-poo the movie based on said copy and artwork. This movie is pretty gory. The things that happen to Dale's corpse (and no, we're not ruining anything by telling you Val Kilmer dies…it happens in the first 10 minutes; the guy is barely in it) are pretty grotesque not at all expected at first, and become a source of some pretty dark humor.

But the one thing that really makes this movie more than expected is Gina Gershon. All the players in this dilm do great jobs, but she just nails her part and makes the audience want her to walk away from the whole thing scot-free. And she makes a sexy-as-hell southern belle, even when she's got blood and guts all over her. Her counter-part, Kelli Giddish, plays a dumber-than-brick blonde who doesn't seem to have much ability for independent thought, and she does it well. But Gina outshines her. As mentioned, Val Kilmer is in the movie for all of about 10 minutes, but he's great in the short time he's on screen. Liotta has a more subdued than usual role, and Wayne Duvall makes an appearance as an unexpected guest. All do a fine job with performances, but it's Ms. Gershon who really propels this one along.

Video/Audio/Extras:
The release is a BD-DVD combo, and for this review, the Blu-ray was watched. The aspect ratio is 2.35:1, with a 1080p HD transfer. The movie was shot digitally, and it looks quite stunning. It offers incredible detail and wonderful clarity through out, with some interesting use of color. For example, Gershon's red dress, wore for the duration (it all takes place in one day), provides a nice contrast to the otherwise dreary looking trailer. The black levels seem very deep and satisfying; no compression issues were noticed, nor any other authoring troubles. The audio is a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track, and sounds great and there are lots of interesting sounds effects are to be heard. Mostly on the subtle side of things, but the track serves its purpose and seems to be void of any troubles.

The extras include a 15-minute “Making of” and an audio commentary by the director and producer. The making of is pretty tight, split into a few segments and pretty well stays clear of being a suckup fest, providing some interesting enough inside info on the movie. I more or less is a monologue from the write-director. The commentary is pretty typical, if not average, and a little dull. Good for those who like independent movie making, but not worth the listen if you're looking for something to enhance the movie experience.

The Final Word:
Surprisingly entertaining, Breathless (not an appropriate title really) was a fun little movie. Great acting, Gershon is awesome, and its plenty bloody and quirky. Worth checking out.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!