Oxygen
Tags: revenge, psychological, murder, sadist, romantic

Plot synopsis:
"Harry Houdini" (Adrien Brody) has kidnapped and buried alive a rich businessman's wife. He demands $1 million in cash from the woman's husband in return for the release of the location of her burial site before she runs out of oxygen. He also states that if police involvement is initiated, he will ensure she is never found alive. As expected, however, police involvement is initiated and Detective Madeline Foster (Maura Tierney) is assigned with the task of finding the buried woman and catching Houdini.
It is quickly realized though that Houdini, in fact, wanted the police to get involved so he could commit a second kidnapping - that of Foster. When Houdini is finally caught as the result of a car chase involving him and Detective Foster, she attempts to get him to reveal the location of his buried victim. When Foster's initial interrogation of Houdini proves unsuccessful, the FBI are assigned to take over the case, although they do not have any more luck. In a plot twist, it is revealed that Houdini has already committed a murder, that of his accomplice. He now has nothing to lose and the police realize the death of the buried woman would not be as significant as first thought.
However, Houdini offers them a final lifeline - if he is allowed to talk to Foster, alone, he will allow his victim to be recovered alive. The police, now just puppets in Houdini's plan, give into his request. Troubled, Foster begins to reveal her darker side to Houdini and he sees a kindred spirit in her.
Soon after, it is revealed that Houdini was in fact a painter in the police department, and outlined the entire building in a very detailed map. Just as Foster is revealing the truth, Houdini takes her to the place where he buried the first woman. Foster escapes her hold, and releases the woman and takes Houdini's gun, then pushes him inside the coffin. As he taunts Foster, she shoots him rather than burying him.

Review: A cop (Maura Tierney) with some very dark secrets is on the trail of a kidnapper (Adrien Brody) who buried a rich woman (Laila Robins) alive in the New York woods.
In OXYGEN, Richard Shepard has refined his approach to character-driven crime thrillers first seen in his previous, also excellent film, MERCY.
Armed with experience and a bigger budget, Shepard has wrested outstanding performances from Maura Tierney and Adrien Brody, in their best work to date.
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.
Maura Tierney was somewhat convincing as the main cop, playing a B-movie's Clarice Starling.
Adrian Brody, the kidnapper, was pretty good, if not a little tough to believe.
More articulate people than myself have said it all; but I'll have a go anyway :) Oxygen is a tightly paced and utterly watchable thriller about a female detective (Maura Tierney) on the trail of a psychopathic kidnapper (Adrian Brody) and his buried-alive victim, while fighting demons of her own.
Good performances, especially from Adrien Brody as a psychotic sadistic killer with a Houdini obsession and Maura Tierney as a cop, make this film stand out.
The real story is about what happens after he is caught as the police and the FBI race against time to get him to reveal where she's buried.Our sociopathic villain, known to us only as Harry (after his idol Harry Houdini) is well prepared for the psychological cat and mouse game that follows as he had planned what he would do if he were caught.
The result is an effective (though often superficial) contest of psychological one upsmanship between Harry (Adrien Brody) and our heroine police detective, Madeline (Maura Tierney).The story has some noticeable plot flaws for a film that is attempting to be a serious crime drama.
Tierney was outstanding at the tormented side, but came across as tentative and flaccid as the cop (which was the greater part of the role).The best performance comes from Adrian Brody as Harry.
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.
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 competentCouple of good ideasThe Bad:Sub-plot damages the filmShould have been longerThings I Learnt From This Movie:I don't like Adrien Brodys faceA cat may have peed in Maura Tierneys handbag.
If you can, you shoud get the DVD because It has director commentary along with the two lead actors, Maura Tierney (who is amazing) and Adrian Brody (also amazing).
The director and writer, Richard Shepard, is way cool as well and does a great job, especially considering the film's small budget.
A thriller that offers great performances from a "lesser known" cast, chases, twists and turns, and an overall satisfying story.Director Richard Shepard had offers of a larger budget but it would have meant having it done the way the higher-ups in suits would have wanted it done.
There's a lot of talking going on in the process of saving her, but hey, figure how it would happen in real life, and for those looking for some thinking material as well as thrills, this plot works just fine.
Besides, to me the most terrifying thing I can imagine is suffocating or drowning, and the idea of being buried alive like in this film is genuinely creepy.Maura Tierney plays the cop role with much seriousness, Adrien Brody is so off kilter you forget he's actually a decent guy in real life (as revealed on the DVD's audio commentary), but big points go to Laila Robins as the woman buried alive--her character is so convincing she makes you feel uneasy to the point of squirming in your seat.
The audio commentary is quite informative and even informal, as the director points out a tiny judgment mishap in which a scene was shot early with the actors wearing jackets, but the rest of the film surrounding that scene everyone is made to look like they're sweating from the hot weather.
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.
Routine crime story enhanced by the outstanding performance Adrien Brody gives us of a clever, cynical and sadistic killer who buried a woman alive just to fun.
Despite these negative points, the film has its moments, for example the audacious escape of Brody from the police headquarters and the poignant dialogue he keeps with the female cop (Tierney) in charge of the case.
This concentration camp survivor looking like individual goes by the name, no big surprise here, of Harry played by a emaciated looking skin and bones, a body that's perfect in escaping from straight-jackets and handcuffs, Adrien Brody.Together with his partner in crime Greg "Handsome" Evens, Michael Henderson, Harry kidnaps both Frances Hannon, Laila Robins, and her pet Pooh,played by Duke the Dog, as she was out walking him outside her luxury apartment house one afternoon in Midtown Manhattan.
Held for one million dollars in ransom money Harry demands from Frances' millionaire art collector husband Clark, James Naughton, that if he doesn't get the cash by 6:00 Am the next morning she'll be dead; Dying from suffocation by being buried alive in some unknown location outside the city limits.The movie starts to get really strange when NYPD lady Det. Madeline "Maddy" Foster, Maura Tierney, is put on the case.
With that knowledge in mind Harry does everything he can to get under Det. Foster's skin making her job, in finding the buried alive France's Hannon and her Pooch, much harder then it already is.***SPOILER ALERT*** We soon get to find out just that the not all there upstairs Harry really wanted to get himself caught in order to prove that he, like his hero Harry Houdini, can escape from any situation he finds himself in.
That leads to Harry ending up just where he put Frances, in a pine box, with him not worried about suffocating to death because of lack of oxygen because by then he wouldn't really need it anyway!P.S Earlier in the film there's a big chase scenes under the Brooklyn West-End elevated subway line that starts at the 62nd Steet station.
Maura Tierney plays a tough New York cop with a secret life — she drinks too much and, though married, has a secret lover who burns her with cigarettes.
Not.END OF SPOILERThis movie has bigger fish to fry and I was totally gratified that it went down dark places where cop and kidnapper realized that, on some level, they shared certain things.
The two have a late scene in an interrogation room where they deliver volcanic performances.But once this psycho-thriller stuff is set aside, the movie comes to a swift ending.
That's the kind of movie you watch without too high expectations and then it totally blows you away, and you can't turn it off, and at the end you wish you could know what's going to happen now.
But the actors are just great - Adrien Brody shows his evil face and you got really scared of him, and Maura Tierney...
Adrien Brody and Maura Tierney in a "buried alive!" thriller, this oughta be fantastic!
Tierney does a good job of playing the "badass cop on the outside, masochist on the inside." Brody is way too obnoxious as the male lead.
There are some interesting plot twists that will keep you watching, but overall this one is only for fans of Tierney and "buried alive!" movies in general.
They only gave it 1-1/2*'s, but noticing that Adrien Brody and Maura Tierney were in the cast, I decided to take a look.
One of the best aspects of this flick is the character each represents - two of the most weirdly fascinating, this side of Dennis Hopper and his companions "Blue Velvet," or the cult classic Rory Calhoun opus, "Motel Hell." Brody as the youthful, sort of nerdy-yet-wicked, braces-wearing, nefarious villain; and Tierney as the competent, dedicated, tough detective, with her strange compulsive, secretive nocturnal predilections, sort of a "masochistic savant." Perhaps not great, and with some contrasting moments.
Sometimes the cops here were more realistic and "low-key" than in most of this type of movie fare, and at others were the types of doophuses we see regularly, enforcing the law, in these flicks.All-in-all, a good 7* presentation, and not a bad way to spend the two hours' viewing.As a sort of imaginary "sub-plot" I couldn't help visualizing from early-on, I was hoping that Brody and Tierney might meet-up at some point - the confrontation between the quintessential sadist and masochist, respectively.
The running time is like 1 hour 20 minutes or something and i think if the story was able to develop more it would be really, really good.
Everything happens too quickly or not in enough depth so it's just kind of weak, but as i say, it's not terrible, you just have to accept that it's way to short for a film of this kind.Maura Tierney is once again great though.
Adrien Brody is excellent and you just want to hit him as the character, "Harry".Overall, i'd recommend it if you like the actors, but if you want a really scary, true to life crime thriller then give it a miss..
I only watched this movie because of Adrien Brody and Moira Tierney of ER fame.
I wanted to see "Oxygen" for two reasons: 1) The premise seemed interesting, and 2) Maura Tierney is my favorite actress.
Leads Tierney, who played Madeline Foster, and Adrien Brody, who played Harry, were phenomenal.
In short, this was an excellent movie, mainly because of Tierney and Brody.
Quotes "French Connection" in the opening chase, unnecessary for the film plot but for Tierney's character.
The Houdini thing is cool, maybe too many characters and too much the director not wanting to say about them but to emphasize the Brody-Tierney cat-mouse, spider-fly duet and duel.I mean it's enough already with the Brody and Tierney clash, they sound better and more real than Clarisse and Hannibal cos she's sick and twisted enough and Brody sounds at the beginning so sympathetic..That's the advantage of no real familiar faces of bored stars, you feel more accuracy and real tension and you believe more in them..Tierney looks like Linda Fiorentino and acts sometimes like Linda Hamilton but there is something believable about her persona.
I could live without the car chase -continued from the Friedkin thing-and felt good the bad guy was so bad -anyway, there are no really good guys in "Oxygen"-problem is you don't care too much about the woman buried-for me that's also the idea cos that's the premise-Tierney missing all the oxygen.
Brody is managing to do a part that'll become a classic-there with the real monsters of the screen, and the whole atmosphere is very tense and dark, contrast especially felt in sunlight.I say again, I loved it cause I haven't heard about it so that's what you get when you check out something obscure.The director wants to say too much so he leaves himself breathless, the viewer too, but should have saved some oxygen to spaciate the film a little bit.
it doesn't have a specifically interesting ending, nothing that shocks you or makes you remember it, so that could have been worked on, but all-in-all, for lovers of movies such as se7en, it's definitely worth seeing..
Well, at least sometimes.A great start, nice playing and a (nearly) foreseeable ending.But the story is good though, so give it a try.
These two actors communicated with their raw instinct, making this film interesting and worth watching.The plot does have its typical Hollywood predictability at times but that is easily forgiven in light of the great performances..
Although a low-budget film, the acting was quite good & Richard Shepard (who wrote & directed) did an excellent job, grabbing interest quickly & sustaining it.The bad guy, Harry, at first seemed a simple-minded villain.
Then we discover Madeline's secret side, a side her husband doesn't see but Harry latches onto almost immediately.I do remember stories of people being buried alive, especially since I'm old enough to have seen the original Vincent Price movies when first released & am familiar with the Poe fears and stories.
It's true, that many of them are a complete waste of time, but what I really enjoy about them is that it gives people the freedom to do what they want, without Hollywood turning it into something it's not, and occasionally, I find a movie like Oxygen.
Being that it's an independent film, two performers who I really enjoy watching, got to step away from their usual roles and try something different.
Maura Tierney is usually cast as the emotionless girl with a troubled past, but in Oxygen, she's this crazy, self-loathing, tough as nails cop, who wears her emotions on her sleeve.
She's opposed by Adrien Brody who usually plays the sweet, good-looking, exotic stranger, but not this time.
If I hadn't seen both stars in a ton of things prior to this, I may not have been as entertained by this film, as the story is common, and very little is unpredictable, however the performances were tremendous and Tiereny and Brody compliment each other perfectly..
Aside from excellent acting by Maura Tierney (wasted), and a very Anthony-Edwards-esque Terry Kinney, this movie is a waste of 90 minutes.
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.
I am a big fan of Adrien Brody, but this is like Cary Grant trying to put over a role as a serial killer.
After viewing this film, you may need oxygen (and a shower).The plot is not that original either; it was done much better on TV shows like Top Cops, and CSI The complete script is totally unrealistic, and has very little to do with either the criminal intent to make money or psychological need to show how smart and clever one could be.
This 'movie' feels more like a rejected pilot for a cop melodrama TV series in the likes of 'Hillstreet Blues' than a psychological thrillerWith it's overabundance of focus on 'the wrong things' like the police couple with drinking- and relationship problems becoming the main focus very often instead of the actual crime that most of us viewers tuned in forAnd it looks it as well, with cheap budget and limited sets The only thing that sticks out if just a little is Adrien Brody who's never bad but not even him can save this melodramatic drivelI liked Maura Tierny in the 'ER' series but she seriously has one facial expression through-out the whole movie, the 'I'm trying seriously not to start drinking again' depressed lookGive this one a pass.
First I'd Like to point out that the performances by Tierney and Brody are not why this movie does not work for me.
The mastermind behind this and also for burying the woman alive is a psychotic Harry Houdini fan named Harry (Adrien Brody) that isn't much interested in the ransom money of US$1 million he asked but he's more concerned in playing games with the cops and after meeting the female detective, you don't even have to think twice on things will go from here.
In the meantime, the FBI has 24 hours to find the woman before the worst happens.It's very well made, well acted, has its great moments (the chase in the subway is amazingly well edited, good thrills in there) but is not challengeable like the fore-mentioned classics.
Maura Tierney nicely represented someone that must forget her addictions to stay good in what she does best, to catch bad guys.
Anyways Adrien Brody plays a psychotic murder named Harry, who kidnaps a woman and buries her alive.
The money drop off goes OK until the kidnapper figures out the police are watching him, Foster has no choice but to arrest him without the knowledge of where Frances is & once in custody he refuses to say anything, will Frances be found in time before she runs out of air & why does her young kidnapper seem so clam, almost as if he is enjoying himself or maybe there are other less clear motives behind the events of the previous day...Written, co-produced & directed by Richard Shepard I thought Oxygen was a nice tight, taut little thriller that isn't the sort of thing I usually like but it has a certain something about it.
The acting is good especially from the two leads, Tierney as the cop & the effective Brody as the cold, calculating villain.Oxygen is a good thriller, it's short on action or violence but it has a good strong story to compensate.
Not only is the story packed with suspense -- a kidnapped woman has been buried with a day's worth of air and it's the cops' job to find out where she is before she suffocates -- but the performances are better than what we've come to expect from yarns about the police.