Oxygen *** (1999, Maura Tierney, Adrien Brody, Dylan Baker, James Naughton) – Classic Movie Review 2803

Co-producer/writer/director Richard Shepard’s 1999 psychological thriller is busy, twisting and nasty toned.

Maura Tierney stars as Madeline Foster, a sado-masochistic police detective who tries to free a hostage who’s been buried alive at gunpoint in a coffin somewhere in New York, by a sadistic kidnapper nicknamed Harry (Adrien Brody) with a talent for Houdini-style escapes. Harry has kidnapped a rich woman and has buried her in Manhattan to demand a ransom from her tycoon husband to be paid within 24 hours or else.

But first the cop must confront her own demons, as well as working with her husband,  Jackson Lantham (Dylan Baker), the FBI investigator she is cheating on with her lover (Olek Krupa).

Oxygen is contrived, extreme and loaded with bad vibes, but it is also flashily well made, even better acted and exciting if you can take it.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2803

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