In the 1970s, two teenage surfer boys, Pikelet and Loonie, growing up in a small town meet and form a connection with an older surfer named Sando, who challenges them to take greater and more dangerous risks.[2][3]
The film is the feature directorial debut of Simon Baker, who also acted in the film and produced it[4] with Mark Johnson and Australian Jamie Hilton. Johnson met Tim Winton in America where he was on a book tour and obtained an option on the book. Winton wrote the first screenplay with the final script by Gerard Lee, Baker and Winton.[2][5] Financing was provided by "the Australian art councils and... from Screen Australia to ScreenWest",[2] Great Southern Development Commission and Autumn Productions. The Western Australian Government contributed $2.3 million in a bid to promote the state as a premier filming location.[6]
Themes
Producer Mark Johnson said, "It's got universal themes—about being desperately afraid that you're ordinary, about being afraid as a young man that there's nothing exceptional about you—and I think that has great application in a universal way, but this is also a specifically Western Australian story".[2] Simon Baker's view is that "Tim's book viscerally captures the restless curiosity and yearning for identity that often defines our coming of age".[5]
Filming
The Western Australian coastal town of Denmark, part of the Great Southern region, is the location for filming.[6] For Tim Winton this was an ideal location; "The Great Southern region has had an enormous impact on my life and work so I'm very pleased this film is being shot on the beaches and streets and forests that inspired the book."[5]
Reception
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On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80%, based on 50 reviews, and an average rating of 6.63/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A coming of age drama with a surfing twist, Breath navigates seemingly familiar waters — but has surprising depth below the surface."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]
Writing for The Australian, critic David Stratton wrote, "Intimacy is probably more difficult to capture on screen than bigger emotions, and Baker succeeds admirably in bringing to life the characters of these two impressionable boys and the adults who change their lives."[9] In a glowing review, critic Brent McKnight, stated "Think a more thoughtful “Point Break” with less bank robbery — it displays quieter machismo."[10]
In The Globe and Mail, Joanne Schneller praised Baker's directing, concluding, "Baker proves himself a talented director; he manages the rolling rhythms of his waves and his story with skill – especially a montage around Pikelet’s sexual awakening, which is at once funny, steamy and poignant."[11] Similarly, writing for The Austin Chronicle, Steve Davis also praised the directing by saying "Baker paces the film similarly to reading a book. There’s a leisurely pleasure in the way he allows things to unfold".[12]
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