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| A Mouthful of Air - Image from Sony Pictures |
Most of you are used to coming here and seeing reviews, quotes, and fun from the latest family friendly movies, but the movie review today is a bit different. When I had the opportunity to screen Sony's A Mouthful of Air, I jumped at it because I felt like this movie speaks to an important topic that we don't discuss as parents (and moms in particular) enough - mental health, depression, and anxiety. A Mouthful of Air stars Amanda Seyfried and is based on the book by Amy Koppelman.
A Mouthful of Air Review
In A Mouthful of Air, we meet Julie (Amanda Seyfried) who is a children's author and young mom. The movie showcases a journey that is all too common and often not talked about openly. Through flashbacks and therapy, we learn that Julie has struggled throughout her life with trauma and depression, but things really get difficult as a new mom. Following an incident of self-harm / suicide attempt, Julie's husband, friends, and family are also highlighted as we see how each of them manage their own understanding of what has happened. Julie has her husband by her side as she works through therapy, but a surprise second pregnancy adds strain to their relationship and her fragile mental state.
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| A Mouthful of Air - Image from Sony Pictures |
Overall, I felt that this movie tackles an important topic with a cast that portrays their characters brilliantly. Amanda Seyfried is a perfect choice for the character of Julie - she is vulnerable, passionate, and as the audience, you just get lost in her emotional eyes. Finn Wittrock, who plays Julie's husband Ethan, and Paul Giamatti, who plays the therapist, are also wonderful in their roles. However, the story seemed to have several holes that made it hard for me to pull all of the pieces together. I wanted to know and understand more of Julie's story - it has potential to be so compelling and starts to pull audiences in - but instead I felt like I was getting fleeting glimpses of her. Taking more time to flesh out the depth of Julie's story behind the surface would have lended even more importance to the topic of postpartum depression. I did find Seyfried's character to be super relatable in the sense that we often don't "see" mental health concerns in everyone who is struggling. Julie is a successful children's author, lives in a nice home, has a handsome husband who loves her, and is mom to two beautiful children - all with a smile on her face to the outside world. The movie reminds us that nobody really knows the story behind the smile of those you meet.
This is definitely a sad film and one that you have to be in the right mindset to watch with the heaviness of the conversations here. I wish that I felt like I had "more" from the movie, but appreciate the efforts by director Amy Koppelman (who also wrote the book by the same title) to bring mental health front and center to the big screen. A Mouthful of Air releases in limited theaters on October 29, 2021.
About A Mouthful of Air (From Sony Pictures)
Julie Davis, warm, kind, loving to her husband and child, is a bestselling children’s author. While her books deal with unlocking childhood fears, she has yet to unlock the dark secret that has haunted her own life. But when her second child is born, events occur that bring that secret to the fore, and with it, a crushing, powerful battle to survive.
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