The "Asthma" by writer-director Jake Hoffman has a nifty irony for a short time.
The film's slacker-junkie hero Gus (Benedict Samuel), challenged by weakening bronchial asthma bouts that leave him gasping for air, is just enough of a charming kook that "Asthma" is imbued with a 1960s-like, anti-establishment spirituality.
In other words, in a way that Gus can not, "Asthma" breathes with the wealthy oxygen of chance.
As a listener, it also feels nice to absorb the heady atmosphere of Hoffman. He steals a Rolls-Royce, picks up the lovely Ruby ("Jessica Jones'" Krysten Ritter in an Audrey Hepburn-like role) and heads out of Manhattan for woody Connecticut after Gus fails a suicide attempt (which literally includes whiting himself out with paint).
Following the short road trip, the infectious pleasure of dismissing boring ancient real-world normalcy is set to a jangling pop soundtrack. The same feeling of exploration and openness endures when there is a mishap with the vehicle that leaves Gus and Ruby walking for miles, embracing both the plot and the difficult but emerging relationship of the characters.
But then Hoffman (Dustin Hoffman's son, and an actor in Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" playing the shoe salesman) shifts course. Once the pair reaches a cult-like hipster society, the tale becomes of Ruby attempting to maintain up with Gus as his demons chase him. "Asthma" becomes flat, and much less sympathetic becomes Gus.
A cast that involves Rosanna Arquette in a short scene, Nick Nolte voicing a drug-induced waswolf appearance and a Goran Visnjic as a guru that is scarcely recognizable adds interest and fun. The bleached visuals of Hoffman cannily indicate the worn out spirit of Gus.
But "Asthma" loses its spark and momentum long before the midpoint- a real deception.
