A psychopath who dubs himself Harry Houdini (Adrien Brody) kidnaps the wife of a rich businessman, strips her, and buries her alive in a coffin with about an hour's worth of air, demanding a million dollars in cash in return for which he will reveal her location. If the ransom isn't paid, or the police are involved,
'Harry' will not give up the details... the husband gets the police involved. The detective investigating, Madeline (Maura Tierney of Scotland PA, Diggers and ER fame) is now the only one who can try and solve the case. A damaged masochist with a drink problem, she'll have to think like Harry in order to find the burial site before the oxygen runs out. Opening with a kinetic chase through a subway train, Oxygen immediately makes an impression. Its greatest asset is the well thought out characters, who so clearly have had lives before the film begins. In particular, Madeline is an absolutely fascinating protagonist and the bits of information we get build into something that makes the dénouement doubly exciting. The premise is excellently handled but this isn't a one-trick pony of a film and the sub-plots are equally well executed. Maura Tierney and Adrien Brody both give refreshing performances (a sort-of skew on the Hannibal/Clarice relationship in Silence of The Lambs) and the supporting cast (which includes Terry Kinney and Dylan Baker in a small role) is decent. The low budget is occasionally evident (a car-chase through New York City isn't exactly high-speed) but higher production values might have resulted in something more sensationalist and less imaginative. In any case, this is a solid, exciting little flick.
March 22, 2008
