A Mouthful of Air

By: Maggie Stankiewicz

It’s rare for an author to have the opportunity to write and adapt a film adaptation of their novel, but such is the case for Amy Koppelman and A Mouthful of Air. This is Koppelman’s second foray into bringing her book to the silver screen after 2015’s I Smile Back. Stacked with an immensely talented cast in Amanda Seyfried, Finn Wittrock, Paul Giamatti and Jennifer Carpenter, A Mouthful of Air is a joyless meditation on the dark side of motherhood and the harrowing fight for survival in a world that heavily stigmatizes postpartum depression (PPD) and associated conditions.

The story closely follows Julie (Amanda Seyfried), a 26-year-old wife, and mother living in New York City. On the surface Julie has it all – a privileged life, a loving husband, a fruitful career as a children’s book author. But Julie’s life hasn’t always been so blessed and her dark childhood and susceptibility to depression in all of its forms come together in a perfectly heartbreaking storm. Early in the film audiences are made privy to Julie’s attempted suicide, an earth-shattering event that sets the tone for the entire languishing story.

It is difficult to criticize the film for its approach to postpartum depression, clinical mood disorders and their impact on a young woman’s life. After all, the novel and the film are based on Amy Koppelman’s real-life struggles with PPD. It’s also difficult to object to any of the film’s central cast. Amanda Seyfried puts on one of the defining performances of her career – perfectly juxtaposing the lightness of youth with one’s struggle to reconcile their brain chemistry and trauma. Finn Wittrock is likable as her sweet, albeit ineffectual husband Ethan.

A Mouthful of Air does not take its subject matter lightly. Whereas other forms of media have tried to explore PPD and clinical depression with undercurrents of exploitation, Koppelman’s intimate understanding of the condition grounds the film and serves to spread awareness rather than the feelings of shame, secrecy and stigma that surrounds mental illness and PPD. The sloppiest bits of this film are within the depiction of Julie’s privilege, which often feels like an out-of-place parody instead of a warning that trauma and mental illness can afflict even the rich and the beautiful.

Julie’s attempted suicide before her son’s first birthday is just one of many expressions of mental illness the young mother ensures throughout the film. She is riddled with panic attacks and endless despair. Seyfried deftly navigates the treacherous waters and emotional weight of portraying such a tortured character. Her absence is felt in every scene that doesn’t center around Julie, despite impressive performances from the entire cast. This lends itself to the notion that no matter how well-adapted a novel can be – the material will always suffer the fate of the cutting room floor. There simply wasn’t enough time to get audiences to emotionally invest in the other characters when Julie’s story demands the extent of our emotional bandwidth.

A Mouthful of Air is not a pleasant film to watch, but it is an important one. Koppelman’s goal of exposing the masses to the darkness of depression and PPD is a noble cause and one that will undoubtedly open viewers up to more empathetic and open conversations around trauma, motherhood, mental illness and the chemicals or medications that can help us survive.