40
A film of unreconciled impulses, Breathing is by turns vaguely sentimental and cooly detached in a manner that's ultimately more off-putting than it is complementary.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
An Austrian actor whose Easter-Island mug has graced movies such as the Oscar-nominated "The Counterfeiters" (2007), Markovics shows a keen attention to performers that you'd expect from a thespian-turned-director.
80
Best known until now for Oscar-winning holocaust drama "The Counterfeiters," Karl Markovics flexes his muscles on the other side of the camera with terrific effect. A fine, moving debut for the new writer/director.
50
Slant Magazine by Joseph Jon Lanthier
Can a film be faulted for being too sympathetic toward its characters, for limning a milieu with extraneous humanism?
80
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The "breathing" of the title becomes a cleverly recurrent motif, and Markovics's script circles around the themes of death and life in thoughtful and elegant ways: it is a well-carpentered screenplay which bears every sign of having been a labour of love, worked on fruitfully over many years.
75
The new film's strongest point is the assured performance by Schubert, who's in nearly every frame. Elegant cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, one of Austria's most sought-after lensers, gives Breathing added depth.