Oxygen - 1999

 The best thing about video rental stores was picking up something, judging it completely by the cover, and renting it.  I know that online you can see a cover, read a synopsis.  Fuck you.  It isn't the same.  I frequent the library because it reminds me of video rental stores...which I sorely, sorely miss.

I picked up Oxygen and raised a skeptical eyebrow at the cover.  This movie looks dumb as sin.  It looks like a made for TV late night basic cable "thriller" and would only be remarkable because it was lucky enough to cast a pre-fame Adrien Brody.  So yeah, I guess I judged it as being most likely bad, and then last night I was in the mood for something maybe leaning towards bad, so I put it on.

In the beginning of Oxygen, we are following tough female detective Madeline in her day at work.  After a particularly rough day, she goes to a mystery house and has a drink with a bizarre man, with a suggestion of something creepy and sexual happening after.  She then gets roped into the newest case:  a high powered man's wife was kidnapped, she's locked in a coffin that's buried somewhere, and they probably only have an hour to solve the case before she runs out of oxygen.

There's a few things I'll say here, such as that this movie clearly is emulating precursors in the genre, The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, The Bone Collector, that type are all the skeletons that this movie is building from.  However, to dismiss it based on that would be a mistake.  Much like The Silence of the Lambs, this is a human story first and a thriller second.  Adrien Brody plays a completely unsympathetic psychopath, and Maura Tierney as the detective is layered and intricate.  The dialogue is good, the tension is good, and there's a lot of "oh shit" moments present in the film.

It's not like Oxygen is rewriting the book on a crime thriller or anything.  But for what it tries to do, it vastly succeeds.  Everything is pulling it's weight, and the acting especially elevates the whole movie.  Hey, casting a future Academy Award winner in the role of the bad guy?  It's a good idea.  Also, this movie pulls no punches.  It's not out to be an audience pleaser, and the end is dark and realistic.  

I don't know how to justify liking this as much as I did.  Perhaps it mainly stems from a vast underestimation of what the movie would be.  I expected some dumb late 90's cop movie with nu metal on the soundtrack and contrived "super-cool" style aspirations.  Through a certain lens, I suppose one could see that present here a bit.  But go in with no expectation, and be pleasantly surprised like I was.