YKWIM #75: Still Breathing (1997)
But don't hold your breath
Hello, hello, here we are again. The warmer days are coming and it’s making a big difference.
It’s been a minute, do you remember how this works?
Forget About It Friday
A look back on films, both theatrical and made-for-TV, that have slipped from the pop cultural collective consciousness over the last thirty or so years. Most of these will be from the late 70s through the 90s, though not exclusively. Do these movies hold up? Have we forgotten them for good reason? Will the plots get weirder and weirder? Stay tuned!
Still Breathing (1997)
Provided description: A Texas street performer believes that his destined love is the disillusioned con woman he met in a Los Angeles bar.
Where to stream: Free on Tubi or IMDb
To let us know this is in San Antonio, it opens on a shot of the Alamo. Brendan Fraser is sitting in a lush green backyard, cutting out photos of women from old magazines. He makes a latte from his at-home espresso machine and adds the latest clippings to a huge collage on the dining room wall (see above on the movie poster).
“I know you’re in there somewhere,” he says to his giant art project.
Cut to Hollywood, California. A young woman parks a pick-up truck in a dark alley, puts The Club on her steering wheel, and walks off alone to a voice over monologue about giving up on love (“So I grew up and put away those childish things…”). A pretty sad vibe.
A creepy man sneaks out from the shadows and attacks her— oh no! He points a gun and before he can shoot, there’s a weird flash. Brendan Fraser in Texas has a vision about what’s going to happen and cries out, “NOOO!” Out of nowhere, a bright yellow Mustang hits the guy and speeds off, sparing our unnamed brunette protagonist. She kicks him in the ribs, takes his money, and knocks the gun down the sewer drain. An auspicious start for a romantic lead.
Our leading lady is named Rosalyn, the kind of character who’d be described as “there’s a darkness inside her.” Another weird flash and we’re back with Brendan Fraser. He smiles and looks delighted.
“I got her!” he says, beginning another collage. And these collages, well….
Brendan Fraser’s telepathic abilities are not a honed craft. Case in point: Rosalyn was in a famous old LA bar called the Formosa Cafe. Formosa also used to be a region in Taiwan. When Brendan Fraser sees the name of the bar in a vision, he thinks she must be Chinese. Yeah, oh boy. He makes an altar with rocks in his backyard and places his new collage in the middle. Please note, we’re more than ten minutes in and we still don’t know this character’s name.
Brendan Fraser does other quirky stuff like sleep on his dining room table and play the trumpet in a row boat with his grandmother on the tuba while everyone else around them is annoyed at how they’re scaring the fish away. Turns out, these weird mind benders run in the family and it’s how both his parents and grandparents met, so Grandma encourages his visions. All of these weird collages are his way to create the face of the love of his life.
He makes dough entertaining tourists outside the Alamo as a ventriloquist with a three-man band. He announces that he is going to “Taiwan, China,” and the band is like, yeah, makes sense, this weird announcement doesn’t phase us.
Back in LA, Rosalyn is on a date with her friend’s boyfriend, Tomas. The wine and water glasses shake every time they move and it made me miss getting annoyed at wobbly restaurant tables. He asks her greatest passion in the world and Rosalyn says, “Abstract art…. I just love it.” ~*foreshadowing*~ Except what she loves about abstract art is conning guys (like Tomas) into buying expensive paintings and getting a kickback from the art gallery. To get the guys to leave her alone, Rosalyn invites the dudes over and leaves out a bunch of pamphlets on AIDS, bottles of AZT, and medical equipment (yikes, very 90s) and the guys leave as quickly as they can. The deceptions are wearing on her and Rosalyn tries to have a deep conversation with her friend about love. “Love??” her friend says in disgust.
Rosalyn and Brendan Fraser (again, his character name has not yet been said out loud) both have the same strange dream of meeting each other as children. The next day, Brendan is at the airport, about to fly to Taiwan, when he sees “Formosa Cafe” in a magazine over a woman’s shoulder. He changes his flight to Los Angeles and posts up at the Formosa… where it just so happens our girl Rosalyn is supposed to meet a different Texan for another art scheme.
Do these two meet instead? Yep! Do we finally learn Brendan Fraser’s character’s name? It’s Fletcher! Do Fletcher and Rosalyn bare their souls on a walk through the streets of Los Angeles, a famously unwalkable city? Yes! Do they have a weird déjà vu moment that scares Rosalyn away? Of course! Did Fletcher travel all that way with this weird ventriloquist puppets? You know it!
Rosalyn is both drawn to Fletcher and finds him weird as hell. She starts to seduce him like she does with the other guys but Fletcher wants to “take it slow.” Brendan Fraser has a sensitivity to him that makes this feel believable.
Fletcher wants her to join him in Texas and he shows her his favorite places around San Antonio. He talks about soulmates and it strikes a chord with her. Rosalyn tags along to a puppet show for a sick little girl and seeing the way Fletcher interacts with the child melts some of her cold exterior.
Finally, two-thirds of the way through, Fletcher explains to Rosalyn what the audience had to piece together: The men in his family all have visions of their true love and tells Rosalyn he’s been having dreams about her. She demurs, doesn’t take it too seriously (since you know, she’s still trying to scam him), when some beer shows up for a party.
All of his friends and family at the party know about Fletcher’s true love thing so everyone can’t stop looking at her funny and asking questions. It finally hits Rosalyn that he’s not the guy she’s supposed to scam— he’s just a simple street performer. Fletcher’s grandmother has a heart-to-heart with her but she’s not convinced that anyone could love her so easily and heads back home.
Roz is quickly back to her old ways again and picks up another hot shot rich dude to scam. As they’re driving through LA, she spots a tuba in music shop window, just like the one Fletcher’s grandmother plays, and takes it as a sign. She leaves the rich guy in a dry cleaning parking lot and goes back to Texas.
She finds Fletcher asleep on his dining room table, kisses him on the cheek, and goes through some drawings he made of her while she was sleeping. Out in the backyard, Rosalyn lays down in the ivy patch, like Fletcher did while having visions of her, as another voice over monologue plays:
There are two things I always wanted to believe in but didn't dare. One is that there was one man, somewhere, who was made just for me. The other is that I just might deserve him.
Then Rosalyn and Fletcher float down the river in separate inner-tubes, sharing a kiss.
THE END.
Highs
Brendan Fraser: underrated. If you haven’t read the GQ profile from a couple years ago, you should.
I’ll never change my name, I’m very attached to it, but I love love love love uncommon last names that are also ordinary nouns or verbs, like Orange or Knee, or in the case of the lead actress, Joanna Going. As a last name, “Going” is such a gift. It’s a travel writer’s DREAM name. Picture it: an early aughts travel blog called “Joanna Going…” and title of each post would be like, “Joanna Going… to London!” “Joanna Going… to Sydney!” “Joanna Going… to Show You the Perfect Way to Pack a Carry-on!” Okay, that last one’s a stretch, but still.
The writer/director is a Texas native and it shows. It’s like a love letter to Central Texas.
Toby Huss, aka Artie the Strongest Man in the World, as a small part as Fletcher’ friend.
The Formosa Cafe looks cool as hell.
Both Rosalyn’s LA apartment and Fletcher’s house are great sets, A+ set design.
This was just coincidence, but Super Yaki launched a big Brendan Fraser collection today.
Lows
I had no idea wtf was happening for the first half hour.
It felt rushed at the end, especially with such a slow beginning.
With Brendan Fraser as the lead, it could have been funnier. It’s definitely more romantic drama than comedy.
Final Verdict
It’s offbeat, the story doesn’t work in some parts, that China bit was unnecessary, and I don’t know, maybe it’s the romantic in me... but I liked it?? Enjoy the original movie website, still in tact.
Thank you for reading about an old ass movie that the pop culture zeitgeist has forgotten! Any typos, weird spacing, or grammar mistakes are the result of my fallible fingers. Links to my social and website can be found below. If you wish, you can buy me a cup of coffee here or here, thank you, I’d really appreciate it. Any questions or comments, feel free to send them along— andrea.laurion@gmail.com