Oxygen

I think this is a pretty good movie. Basically, Maura Tierney plays a detective who has some very big personal problems to deal with and gets sucked into a kidnapping case only to become the last hope the victim has.

I especially like the way Maura is cast as the leading role. Refreshingly, she is a real woman with very real problems. Most people probably cannot relate with the specific issues she has to deal with, but the one thing I was left with when the movie was over was that she was 100% believable. She's not some kind of "super" human like every other star in a good-guy vs. bad-guy movie. She's just a smart detective who manages to stay alive.

Roaming around Hollywood Video's New Releases, passing through theatre hits and theatre flops, and the the unending list of direct-to-video releases, I found this. The story seemed like a good one, and I was in a hurry for something, so I decided to give it a whirl.

The story is interesting. A middle-aged woman, Frances, is walking her dog when she is approached by what seems like a mild-mannered man. Before she knows it, he flashes a gun, dazes her by hitting her on the temple with it, and smuggles her into a car with a friend. They drive out to the woods somewhere, where she is terrified at the realization that they plan to bury her alive, holding her hostage for her rich husband's money. They put her in the box, the man's accomplice mercifully slipping her the flashlight, and bury her, leaving her to scream in terror.

Move to New York City, where a cop, Madeline, is made aware of the predicament. After witnessing a horrifying tape of Frances begging for help in the woods, the police must plot to catch the kidnappers and find the woman, all in twenty-four hours, or Frances will run out of oxygen and die.

I won't elaborate any more on the plot, only that this movie was surprisingly good. When I noticed it was from A-Pix, I groaned and figured I was in for an hour and a half of trash. But then I saw the breathtaking first few minutes, and I was shocked. If anything, those first three to five minutes are terrifying. As Frances is being buried, she is screaming and begging, struggling to survive, lying in that wooden box as the cover is being slipped on, with only a flashlight to depend upon. And even though the cops-pursuing-the-antagonist plotline is overused, it was quite tense, especially when you realize that there are only twenty-four hours to solve the mystery of where Frances is, and the kidnapper is not interested in talking, while his accomplice is nowhere to be found.

Yes, there are flaws. The script is quite bad, with some lines that I can't believe they wrote in. For some reason, I liked the FBI agent's monologue on the death penalty a la lethal injection, but a lot was pretty bad. Maura Tierney was somewhat convincing as the main cop, playing a B-movie's Clarice Starling. The actor who played Francis's husband was a bit campy. Adrian Brody, the kidnapper, was pretty good, if not a little tough to believe. The one who out-acted them all was Laila Robins, who played Francis. Her role is quite small, only because there's a lot of restrictions with laying in a box underground for the most of the movie. But she was so convincing. My favorite scene is when the flashlight is dying, and she is screaming and begging for it to live a little longer, because, as we learn early on, she is afraid of the dark. I swear, I felt like I was her, and I couldn't believe how empathetic I was of her. Her acting reminded me of Marylin Burn's stellar performance as Sally in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." She conveyed the emotions of the situation very well. I think that's why I felt so bad for her.

Overall, I recommend finding this. No, it's not the best thing ever made, but it is very good, and quite intense. Check it out!

1st watched 3/31/2002 - 8 out of 10(Dir-Richard Shepard): Well-made thriller that is advertised by it's depiction of being buried alive and is actually much more than this. Tierney & Brody give wonderful performances in each of their roles and the direction is almost spotless. Very overlooked movie which deserves much more attention for how well it was done despite not working for a major movie company. I will be looking for more by Mr. Shepard whose direction really made this movie work as well as it did.

Starring Adrien Brody and Maura Tierney this little thriller has some good ideas but thoroughly fails to correctly utilize them.

It tells the story of a cop facing her demons while getting pulled into a case where a millionaires wife has been kidnapped and buried alive. The kidnappers are demanding cash for her location, but is everything as it seems?

Though I don't consider Brody a competent actor he is suitably evil here and plays the part well. Lead Tierney however is a passable actress with a real likeability fact, sadly she seems to be stuck with one single facial expression in every scene of every role she has ever taken. If I had to describe it I'd say the look of a woman who just witnessed her cat pee in her handbag 2 minutes before she's due to go out.

What lets the movie down the most is the weak sub-plot, it just simply isn't needed and takes the movie in directions it simply shouldn't have gone down. Due to this the actual plot feels watered down and not given 100% of the attention (Which it should have had).

Oxygen isn't terrible, it's just decent ideas in the hands of poor writers.

The Good:

Cast are competent

Couple of good ideas

The Bad:

Sub-plot damages the film

Should have been longer

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I don't like Adrien Brodys face

A cat may have peed in Maura Tierneys handbag

... trite, hackneyed, and boring. Aside from excellent acting by Maura Tierney (wasted), and a very Anthony-Edwards-esque Terry Kinney, this movie is a waste of 90 minutes. From the dreadfully self-applauding monologues to the unbelievably wanna-be-Tarantino conversations, it's a non-stop tour of hackdom. Adrien Brody never convinces the viewer he's insane. The cops never sound like cops (check out the 2-3 minute monologue given by the "FBI guy" - Brody's wanna-be cool response of "nice monologue!" will have you rolling your eyes. This is dialogue verite?).

Much like Oprah fans, the plot holes are large and numerous. Tierney's character does nothing to try to hide her burn marks, but only the killer notices. Tierney's character does nothing to hide her alcoholism, but only her friend notices. Adrien Brody's character escapes in some seriously laughable situations (as a 25-year-old with braces, I can tell you the wire does not come out that easy - as an experienced magician, I can tell you that picking cuffs makes a lot of noise, and orthodontic wire is not strong enough for it). The final escape is the worst - how did Brody's character keep the gun on her while they both climbed through a small hole in the roof? How did he keep her quiet while he did all of this? How did the buried woman survive so long, and have the strength and presence of mind to attack him?

Possibly the worst thing about this movie is how clever the writer/director obviously thinks he is. Does he actually believe we care if the killer and the cop are "the same"? They're obviously not - and how many times can that line be recycled? Does he honestly believe he's drawing us in with the tepid, uninteresting cat-and-mouse dialogue? And what was up with the idiotic dirt-kicking scene? "You're finally free", croaks a dying Brody. Thankfully, by that point, so are we.

Dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. Skip it. 0/5 stars.