Featured Blu-ray / DVD Review: Life's a Breeze

January 19, 2015

Life's a Breeze - Buy from Amazon: DVD or Blu-ray

Life's a Breeze is an Irish film that came out in limited release, but failed to make an impact at the box office opening well below the Mendoza Line. Is the film as bad as that result would indicate? Or did it slip between the cracks like so many limited releases before it?

The Movie

We first meet the Small family as they are arguing in the morning. The mother, Margaret, wants her daughter, Emma, to help with their Nan. Meanwhile, Margaret's brother, Colm, is trying to borrow money from Margaret, again. When Emma gets to Nan's place, Colm is already there looking for his birth certificate, which he needs or he will be thrown off of welfare. He's having trouble finding it, because Nan is a bit of a hoarder.

This is why that night, Colm gets Emma to get Nan out of the house for a day. He wants to clean the house as a surprise. It is a surprise alright. A really, really, really bad surprise. The worst of of it comes when they show her her new bedroom. They got rid of her old mattress, which is where she kept all of her money. When she explains she had just under €1,000,000, or just over $1,000,000 in American dollars. At first the family thinks she's joking, but they soon realize she was serious and it is a race to find and recover the mattress and all of that money.

There are a few attempts by the family to get the mattress back, but when they fail, Colm does something dumb, really, really dumb. He calls a local radio station and offers a $50,000 reward for anyone who finds the mattress. Of course, people would rather find the mattress and just keep the money for themselves, so now the family is in a race with everyone who heard that radio broadcast (or later read about it in the newspaper or saw it on TV).

That's not the only twist in the movie; however, the next big plot point is deep into spoiler territory, so we will end the plot summary there.

Life's a Breeze is ... a movie. It is one of those films that is hard to review, because most of the time in never managed to draw out a strong emotional response either way. It isn't a bad movie; you can watch and be mildly entertained, but it never truly draws you in. I did like the chemistry between Fionnula Flanagan and Kelly Thornton. This is Kelly's first acting credit I could find, while on the other extreme, Fionnula has been making movies and TV appearances for nearly 50 years. Their scenes together were the highlight of the movie. The rest of the family were merely dysfunctional in a way that didn't bring enough drama or humor to the film. Even the chase for the money didn't add enough to the movie. It could have been a madcap adventure, but the filmmakers were a little too serious for their own good. I have a funny feeling that by this time next week, I won't remember any details of the movie.

The Extras

There are no extras on the DVD and I don't have the Blu-ray to review. I did a little research and the Blu-ray doesn't have any extras either, but it does only cost $1 more than the DVD, so you can't complain about the price.

The Verdict

Life's a Breeze is a fine film that isn't bad in any particular way, but it is also not good in any particular way either. Solidly average. On the other hand, neither the DVD nor the Blu-ray have any extras, so for most a rental will be enough.


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Filed under: Video Review, Life’s a Breeze, Eva Birthistle, Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt, Kelly Thornton