Inhale

INHALE (Blu-ray)
Universal Pictures

Release date: August 1st, 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 79 minutes

Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writers: Walter Doty, John Claflin

Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Diane Kruger, Mia Stallard, Sam Shepard, Jordi Mollà, Vincent Perez, Rosanna Arquette, David Selby

To save a life, would you be willing to take another? Inhale, directed by Baltasar Kormákur and written by Walter Doty and John Claflin, is a film which not only asks that, but takes a long hard look at donor trafficking and why people resort to it.

It’s the story of criminal defence lawyer Paul Stanton (Dermot Mulroney) and his wife Diane (Diane Kruger). They have a daughter, Chloe (Mia Stallard), who suffers from a rare degenerative lung disease and donor organs are in short supply.

They’ve been on the waiting list for months and Chloe’s cancer is now reaching stage 4, the final stage, but after seeing how the system is clogged up with useless bureaucracy, Dr. Rubin (Rosanna Arquette) informs the couple that there are alternatives. When Paul finds out that a colleague received a donor in Mexico he realises this could be the only way to save Chloe’s life.

Leaving behind everything he believes in, he travels to Mexico to track down the mysterious Dr. Martinez (Vincent Perez) his colleague told him about. Once he’s there, he starts to learn about what really goes on and how the officials turn a blind eye to the illegal trafficking trade. Like breadcrumbs, one truth leads to another until finally he has to make a decision, but either way, someone will have to die.

Inhale might not receive a lot of attention, but for its tough subject matter and compelling performances it really should. Movies are often criticised for not tackling real issues but here we have one which does and it takes no shy approach in hitting its message home.

We see Paul move from being someone who wants to uphold the law to someone who will do what it takes to protect his child. This is paralleled with a client he’s representing at the beginning of the film; a registered sex offender and paedophile who’s been shot by the father of a child he molested.

Gripping? Yes. Suspenseful? Definitely. But what lets Inhale down is the pacing and editing. The film runs by far too quickly, and this is also evident with its 79 minute running time, and doesn’t linger in the moments to let you feel for the characters.

There should be a lot of anger, frustration, love and pain with this family and we don’t really get a sense of that, or at least not enough. The mind and the soul of the film is there, but I wanted to experience its heart as well. The score by James Newton Howard should have had the power to take us there emotionally and sometimes I felt like it was about to.

Inhale is a story which cannot possibly have a happy ending, it’s a morality tale and one that is grounded in the reality we live in. Corruption doesn’t just run, it practically gallops through the legal system and the healthcare industry. While legal donors are in short supply, those desperate on either side will always find someone to exploit them for their own needs. It’s how the problem of supply and demand on the black market is tackled today that will make a difference to the Pauls and Dianes of tomorrow as well as the many others who end up being harvestered for their organs.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is a composer and music producer with a philosophy degree. Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and World Cinema, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

You can find his music on Soundcloud .

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