Mouthful of Air, A

Director: Amy Koppelman
Year Released: 2021
Rating: 0.5

Illustrator/writer Julie Davis (Amanda Seyfried) - who draws books for kids - suffers from postpartum depression after the birth of her first child - and attempts suicide - so when she gets pregnant again and refuses to take her medication ... it becomes a strain on both her and her husband Ethan (Finn Wittrock).  I get that director Koppelman, for her feature debut, is trying to "visually portray" what it's like having depression and/or anxiety, but what that really translates to is showing Ms. Amanda (with her prominent eyeballs) in extreme close-up looking "disturbed" and bathed in white light - it also takes entirely too long to even get to the root of her issues (her father may have been abusive) that it never cares to explore.  What's also egregious is the finale: it turns Julie taking her own life into an animated story and then flashes forward to Ethan as a grandfather.  Self-destruction is not "poetic" ... it's tragic.