Breathe
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: October 13, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaOct 19, 2017
Breathe is a valentine, but it's a valentine that is quite moving. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorOct 19, 2017
Serkis achieves a careful balance with a film that tastefully covers some delicate territory (their sex life; his right to die), avoids the maudlin and injects some surprising if not entirely successful comedy into the mix. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 19, 2017
Garfield (“Hacksaw Ridge”) brings his usual boyish charm to the proceedings while allowing for the occasional burst of precisely calculated angst. Foy (Netflix’s “The Crown”) arguably has the more difficult role, hinting at Diana’s inner doubts while maintaining a sunshiny demeanor. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 19, 2017
Breathe is an inspirational story well told, but it’s essentially a paint-by-numbers biopic of a very deserving subject, with only a few bursts of stylistic flair and a couple of minor surprises at best. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 17, 2017
A gallant performance by that wonderful and versatile young actor Andrew Garfield. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 13, 2017
It’s a gorgeous, romantic drama that earns its emotional resonance without venturing beyond the most familiar beats. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 20, 2017
Cavendish would become a lifelong advocate for the disabled, and the film’s tone is at times overly reverential. But the actors carry the story ably. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 19, 2017
The film lives up to its own characters’ thesis: that disability need not define a person — or even the film about that person. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 20, 2018
Actor Andy Serkis (“Black Panther”) steps behind the camera to direct here, and manages a genial, slow-moving and upbeat picture — for the middle acts. The first act courtship is strictly “Masterpiece Theater,” and the drawn-out third-act a grim different picture with an altogether different agenda. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 19, 2017
Marking the directorial debut of Andy Serkis, it’s competently made but not exceptional. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 13, 2017
Does the script by William Nicholson sometimes hit the sentiment pedal too hard? It does. But look at the tale it's telling. Read full review
60
Time OutMichael GingoldOct 13, 2017
The movie sometimes strains for visual impact: A German medical facility is designed like a Kubrickian nightmare. But by film’s end, Robin and Diana’s devotion to each other wins you over — as does Serkis’s devotion to his story. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraSep 14, 2017
There's a hint of comforting, chocolate-box, Sunday-night TV here, but it's delivered via such quietly powerful performances and with such hope that it's hard to resist. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 19, 2017
After such a revolutionary acting career, Andy Serkis should be expected to make an equally inventive directing debut. Breathe is anything but that. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanOct 18, 2017
The story by screenwriter William Nicholson (“Everest”) jumps from one major episode in Robin’s life to another, but with none of those episodes delving into his interior life, Breathe remains a superficial tear-jerker. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 18, 2017
These successes are inspiring, but deeper and more complex emotions are unexplored. It’s no fault of Foy’s performance; she brings depth, humor, and conviction to her role as the devoted wife. Garfield, on the other hand, labors mightily but can’t overcome the superficiality of the character as scripted by William Nicholson (“Shadowlands”). Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 18, 2017
Never dull and never loses its audience, but there is, inevitably, a certain sameness to the scenes, with Garfield spending a lot of time just sitting there with a goofy smile on his face. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaOct 14, 2017
It’s a plenty good story to tell, but even by the time the respirator takes its last gasp, I was ultimately unmoved. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 13, 2017
For a movie called Breathe, Andy Serkis’ directorial debut is curiously airless — or maybe just quintessentially British, all stiff upper lip and light on emoting. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyJoey NolfiOct 12, 2017
A tame, vanilla whimper of a period drama begging for a better treatment in more assured hands. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleOct 12, 2017
In leaving out the rasp of life from this unusual story, Breathe too often feels like a mechanized exhale. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithOct 9, 2017
The film is an easily digestible replica of the truth, bathed in honeyed cinematography and sentimentalized adulation. Read full review
50
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 13, 2017
The lack of emotional distance between the filmmakers and the subject – producer Jonathan Cavendish is the son of Robin and Diana – might account for the bracingly celebratory approach. This is understandable, perhaps, but it results in a lack of dramatic light and shade, and an absence of texture in the characterisation. Read full review
50
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 13, 2017
This earnestly romantic biopic of odds-beating polio patient Robin Cavendish and his unwavering wife, Diana, keeps its eyes moist and its upper lip stiff to the last — but its sweeping inspirational gestures rarely reach all the way to the heart. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 13, 2017
The performances and the inherent power of the true story keep it from being a complete disaster, but one hopes Serkis moves on to more challenging material with his follow-up. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 10, 2017
Breathe seems to want nothing more than to be "The Theory Of Everything" for a slightly newer generation. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonSep 13, 2017
Breathe is clearly aiming for the same heart-wrenching emotional heights as James Marsh’s Oscar-winning Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything. But this is very much a crude copy, its noble intentions hobbled by a trite script, flat characters and a relentlessly saccharine tone that eventually starts to grate. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 12, 2017
Offering no hint of the backbreaking drudgery and mental strain of their predicament, this gauzy picture (produced by the couple’s son, Jonathan Cavendish, and directed by his friend, the actor Andy Serkis) is a closed loop of rose-tinted memories. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteOct 18, 2017
It’s important to note that Breathe was produced by the Cavendishes’ son Jonathan, who co-owns a production company with Serkis. I suppose not everyone sees their parents for the flawed humans that they are, but in this case, things would be a lot more interesting if they did. Read full review
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