As anyone who has been following the news lately knows, the ocean is deep and dangerous, and people probably ought to stay out of there. But don't tell that to the subjects of The Deepest Breath — an A24-produced Netflix documentary about freediving, a sport in which participants swim underwater without any sort of breathing apparatus.
It's a seemingly inane pursuit, given that these people could devote their lives to doing literally anything else — but the opening moments of The Deepest Breath show exactly how intense freediving is, with a sustained underwater shot showing a diver descending into the ocean before slowly swimming back up, going several minutes without a breath. In the final moments of the shot, they black out just a few feet below the surface and are pulled out by a spotter, the diver's eyes bulging and rolling back in their head.
Much like the rope-less rock climbing doc Free Solo or the volcano romance Fire of Love, The Deepest Breath shows the extreme lengths people will go to in order to achieve mastery of a seemingly random feat, putting the audience right in the midst of the action.
The film follows both champion freediver Alessia Zecchini and safety diver Stephan Keenan, with the opening chapter devoted to their early lives: Alessia as a uniquely driven young swimmer growing up in Italy, while Steve is an Irish adventurer whose mom dies young, inspiring him to go travelling around the world and make the most of every moment. The story is vaguely set up as a romance — except that everyone ominously discusses Alessia and Steve in the past tense, and they're both conspicuously absent from the talking head interviews. With this mystery hanging over every moment, and with many difficult-to-watch shots of people blacking out and nearly drowning, The Deepest Breath is closer to a thriller than a typical sports doc.
The footage here is a little less stunning than in some comparable docs (especially Fire of Love). As incredible as it is to see people dive underwater, the ocean depths are murky and dark, and this isn't exactly Blue Planet. It's more compelling as a human interest story, and Stephen Keenan in particular is a vibrant character on a relatable mission to deal with grief by throwing himself into a life of travel and exploration. Alessia Zecchini, on the other hand, is a bit thinner of a character; she's willing to push her body to the limit and is obsessed with breaking world records, but it's never entirely clear why. She doubtless has many layers in real life, but here she's depicted as a flat character whose only motivation is to be the best.
Writer-director Laura McGann does an excellent job of massaging a real-life story into a mystery-thriller. She takes a forceful hand with the narrative, withholding information from the audience in order to create an effective, surprising payoff. It's tempting to imagine how The Deepest Breath might work as a fictionalized film, with a script that could illuminate some of the parts of the story McGann doesn't have access to (especially the relationship between Alessia and Steve). Still, the real-life footage of divers accomplishing incredible underwater feats is more than enough to make The Deepest Breath a fascinating, sweaty-palmed watch.
(Netflix)It's a seemingly inane pursuit, given that these people could devote their lives to doing literally anything else — but the opening moments of The Deepest Breath show exactly how intense freediving is, with a sustained underwater shot showing a diver descending into the ocean before slowly swimming back up, going several minutes without a breath. In the final moments of the shot, they black out just a few feet below the surface and are pulled out by a spotter, the diver's eyes bulging and rolling back in their head.
Much like the rope-less rock climbing doc Free Solo or the volcano romance Fire of Love, The Deepest Breath shows the extreme lengths people will go to in order to achieve mastery of a seemingly random feat, putting the audience right in the midst of the action.
The film follows both champion freediver Alessia Zecchini and safety diver Stephan Keenan, with the opening chapter devoted to their early lives: Alessia as a uniquely driven young swimmer growing up in Italy, while Steve is an Irish adventurer whose mom dies young, inspiring him to go travelling around the world and make the most of every moment. The story is vaguely set up as a romance — except that everyone ominously discusses Alessia and Steve in the past tense, and they're both conspicuously absent from the talking head interviews. With this mystery hanging over every moment, and with many difficult-to-watch shots of people blacking out and nearly drowning, The Deepest Breath is closer to a thriller than a typical sports doc.
The footage here is a little less stunning than in some comparable docs (especially Fire of Love). As incredible as it is to see people dive underwater, the ocean depths are murky and dark, and this isn't exactly Blue Planet. It's more compelling as a human interest story, and Stephen Keenan in particular is a vibrant character on a relatable mission to deal with grief by throwing himself into a life of travel and exploration. Alessia Zecchini, on the other hand, is a bit thinner of a character; she's willing to push her body to the limit and is obsessed with breaking world records, but it's never entirely clear why. She doubtless has many layers in real life, but here she's depicted as a flat character whose only motivation is to be the best.
Writer-director Laura McGann does an excellent job of massaging a real-life story into a mystery-thriller. She takes a forceful hand with the narrative, withholding information from the audience in order to create an effective, surprising payoff. It's tempting to imagine how The Deepest Breath might work as a fictionalized film, with a script that could illuminate some of the parts of the story McGann doesn't have access to (especially the relationship between Alessia and Steve). Still, the real-life footage of divers accomplishing incredible underwater feats is more than enough to make The Deepest Breath a fascinating, sweaty-palmed watch.
