Inhale

Paul and Diane Stanton (Dermot Mulroney and Diane Kruger) are living a comfortable life in Santa Fe, New Mexico but conflicted with their daughter's stage four lung disease. After months of waiting on the national waiting list so their daughter could get a replacement, Paul discovers a friend, gubernatorial candidate James Harrison (Sam Shepard) has had an illegal heart transplant. Harrison agrees to tell Paul all he knows, which sends Paul to Tijuana to find a mysterious Dr. Navarro, the man behind the curtain of illegal organ transplants.

Organ transplants are just as dangerous and just as illegal as human trafficking, and can cause as much and more heartache. "Inhale" takes a regular family man and places him in war-torn Tijuana to try to save the life if his little girl using any means necessary, which makes you question his moral authority. Good films do just that, they make you think. Great films, however, leave you thinking.

Dermot Mulroney doesn't usually play the leading character but gives a tour-de-force performance here. He is beaten and bruised on his journey but does not give up and held my attention throughout. The beautiful Diane Kruger is equally as good but underused as his frantic wife, tending to be a sidelines character who never gets her due. Sam Shepard successfully plays a slick politician, and the entire Hispanic cast, including the equally slick Jordi Molla, hold their own.

The script has a few problems, mostly with explanation. Shepard's character's relationship to Mulroney's character is never quite explained. It appears they work together and are close, then suggests the opposite when Shepard is running for Governor. Kruger is underused, which takes away from much of "Inhale"'s potential. She is a fantastic actress but seeing her cry isn't enough. She's too good to be so one - dimensional, which suggests some of the film never made it off the cutting room floor.

James Newton Howard's soundtrack blends seamlessly into the background, becoming a character in itself as it differentiates New Mexico and Mexico. The ending is perhaps the biggest fault of the film. The choices Paul makes throughout takes him to a surgical room where he is faced with an incredibly difficult choice. When we discover which choice he made, we are made to think if it was right. If we never knew, that would have left us thinking long after the screen went black.

"Inhale" takes the organ trafficking debate head on, which is admirable. Yet the film isn't as good as the message it gets across.

When I started watching this movie I had my doubts,due to lack of reviews and even rating...so I expected just another "below average" movie just to kill my time.

But from the very beginning I got the feeling it wouldn't be an indifferent film!This is a movie about ethics in its actual sense.Not just about religious or political debates. It should stimulate every user who likes to think.

It has action,drama and even politics,all given to you in a way that not only won't bore you,but will actually make you want it to last a little bit longer...At least that's what happened in my case and to all 4 persons I watched it with!

Acting was good as well.If this movie had a bigger budget and well-known cast would definitely have been a movie everyone would talk about!

If you like movies with both interesting plot and good direction,take my word and watch it.It won't let you down!

What would you do? Your daughter is about to die, your family is breaking apart and your wallet is big enough to afford a human life.

This is basically what this movie is about. As boring that this story starts it really changes fast to an affecting one for everybody who watches this movie. When life saving decisions all of the sudden fall into the hands of a father and a mother of an seriously ill child you should expect to see heartbreaking drama. If then heartless people get involved you should even expect some fireworks. This is basically what you get here.

I seriously recommend this movie to everybody who doesn't wanna see another softened Hollywood ballyhoo and instead likes to ask themselves questions about life and how they would react to certain decisions.

The movie is generally good. I don't know why some reviewers have focused on the incredulity of the story. I think this movie makes a good rental. It is a bit of a hard viewing, not just because of some violence or sex but because of the overall subject matter itself. I thought that the director kept the focus on the story.

When I checked for the reviews I was surprised that it did not have very many reviews. I think the producers and director should be given some positive feedback because this movie did appear to deliver as a movie.

There are some intensely annoying loose ends. So ignore the first ten minutes. If it was not for this I would have given this movie 7 or even 8. Since the story was not cleaned up in the beginning it gets only 6 out of 10.

INHALE is a fine little gripping drama from writers Walter Doty and John Clafin who based this timely tale on a story by Christian Escario about the extremes to which people will go to when terminal illness takes the mains stage of their lives. It is a very dark story but survives becoming morbidly dreary by the sensitive direction from Baltasar Kormákur and a strong cast.

Paul Stanton (Dermot Mulroney) is a successful attorney married to Diane (Diane Kruger) and they have one child Chloe (Mia Stallard) who suffers form a terminal pulmonary disease. The family's life is driven by love but also by the fact that Chloe needs frequent emergency trips to the hospital because of her tenuous hold on life. Paul and Diane are finally told Dr. Rubin (Roseanna Arquette) that the only choice they have for saving Chole is a lung transplant. Paul searches the methods for finding an entry into this overcrowded demand for organ transplant and when he discovers that a powerful man James Harrison (Sam Shepard) received an illegal heart transplant in Mexico, Paul sets out to find the source. In Mexico he discovers just how crime-ridden is this area of 'sales' and persists until he uncovers a doctor Navarro - a code name - in the person of Dr. Martinez (Vincent Perez). The hideaway compound where the illegal transplants are performed is surrounded by poor people and gangs and the one person that helps the desperate Paul find the source of illegal organs is a kid who befriends him. When a 'donor' becomes available, there is a decision that Paul must make, one based on human kindness and compassion balancing with his won desires to deliver lungs to his daughter.

Mulroney is particularly excellent in this tough role and the gamut of emotions is staggering. And the remainder of the cast, including the gifted Jordi Mollà in an important cameo, is superb. The film is intense and disturbing but successfully explores the little known world of illegal organ transplantation. Another fine feather in the cap of Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur!

Grady Harp