In the new crime drama “Just Breathe”, Kyle Gallner plays Nick Bianco, a hardened yet well-meaning man who battles with serious anger management issues. He’s finally started therapy at the behest of his girlfriend Mel (Emyri Crutchfield). Nick is crazy about Mel. So much so that he’s bought an engagement ring with big plans to ask her to marry him. But those plans are put on hold after one jarringly violent encounter.

“Just Breathe” is written and directed by Paul Pompa III who conceives a fairly intriguing crime story and then presents it like an early 1990s thriller. That’s both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. It’s conflicts are certainly well-defined and the stakes couldn’t be clearer. But everyone other than Nick seems shackled to that familiar 90s thriller formula. Meanwhile the story hits a few too many predictable beats, right up to its mostly by-the-book finish.

On the very night Nick is set to propose, his temper gets him into serious trouble. While having dinner with Mel at a swanky downtown restaurant, Nick overhears their waiter insulting her while in the bathroom. Nick snaps and savagely beats the guy into a bloody pulp. The incident costs him a year in prison, and even worse, forces him to put his proposal to Mel on hold.

We then jump ahead a year as Nick is getting out of prison with hopes of picking up where he left off with Mel. But she’s (understandably) in no hurry to rekindle their relationship. And things are made even more complicated by Chester (Shawn Ashmore), Mel’s new landlord who clearly has a thing for her. But it gets even crazier as Chester is also Nick’s parole officer. We quickly learn that he is thoroughly corrupt and uses his authority to force desperate parolees into doing his bidding.

Things heat up when Chester begins using his abovementioned authority to keep Nick out of Mel’s life. Again, it’s a fairly intriguing premise with some compelling possibilities. But much of it is undermined by one noteworthy weakness – Mel. She’s a character plagued by bad decisions, horrible judgement, and an inexplicable inability to see through Chester’s glaringly obvious unhinged infatuation. And she isn’t helped by Crutchfield’s oddly subdued performance.

As for Gallner, he brings all the toughness and volatility needed, but he coats it with a level of sincerity that makes Nick more than some brutish lunkhead. And while the script pigeonholes him a bit, Ashmore makes Chester an appropriately vile villain – a tad cartoonish in spots but every bit as detestable as he needs to be. William Forsythe even shows up playing Nick’s cold and callous father although the screen veteran isn’t given a lot do.

Things escalate too quickly in the final act as the movie barrels towards its big climactic finish. It all ends up in a fairly obvious and predictable place. It works well enough as an ending though it’s not enough to smooth over the film’s rougher edges. The pieces are there and Gallner once again shows he has the acting chops to carry a lead’s workload. But the material lets him down and doesn’t quite develop the kind of intensity a story like this needs. “Just Breathe” releases on VOD September 16th.