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Screening at the recent San Jose Cinequest Film Festival in California, Scottish Director May Miles Thomas' SOLID AIR is a dark and brooding tale set in the twin worlds of high stake gambling. Constantly shifting between the domains of Robert Houston Senior's (Maurice Roëves, Last of the Mohicans) battle against a lapsed claim for compensation after contracting asbestosis within a workplace, and Robert Junior's (Brian McCardie, Ghost and the Darkness) addiction to the poker table. Their world's intertwine yet never collide as both kin set out to inadvertently shuttle each other through their hard times. Father and son portray themselves as lived in figures, intermittently detached from any emotional suffering that they may have endured throughout their unfortunate lives. This undoubtedly adds a certain weight to the characters initially, but the relief from such a morbid existence doesn't come until much later when the air that is solid between them almost suffocates the already complex plot that Thomas has allowed only to breath in the final act. Much of the middle section could easily be discarded. If this were to be so, the film would generally increase it's appeal at the box office, should it secure a cinematic release. However, as the air that is already solid continues to thicken, the plot suffers, and their is almost no relief until it's dying breath, which, when it comes does in fact raise the hairs on the back of the neck, so is it worth the wait? A complex cinematic experience it may well be, equally layered with fine performances from the almost entire Scottish cast does compliment it's charm against the backcloth of the artful, noir-ish cinematography, captured esthetically on high def.
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