Oxygen starts one sunny afternoon in New York City as Frances Hannon (Laila Robins) is walking her pet dog around the block, a man (Adrien Brody) approaches her a begins to chat to her, at first he seems a pleasant & charming young man but he soon changes as he becomes aggressive, he threatens her & makes her get into a nearby car. He, & his accomplice (Michael Henderson), drive off to a wood where they bury Frances alive in a wooden coffin, she has about 24 hours worth of air left & the clock is ticking... Detective Madeline Foster (Maura Tierney) & her partner Jesse (Paul Calderon) are called onto the task force to find Frances & apprehend her kidnappers. They are both briefed, Frances rich husband Clarke (James Naughton) has received a videotape that demands he pay a $1,000,000 ransom or Frances will be left to suffocate & die an agonising & terrifying death. 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...<br /><br />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 script at it's most basic is pretty gripping & absorbing as time runs out for Frances while Harry the kidnapper toys with the police & FBI, although I have to say once Harry is arrested & stuck in that room the pace slackens considerably. I would say that what Oxygen deals with is what many would consider their worst nightmare, being buried alive & slowly running out of air & perhaps more could have been done with this concept as it concentrates a little too much on the games played by Harry with the authorities. One more thing, Harry's precise & exact plans rely far too much on luck & things he simply has no control over to make me convinced that he could have come up with such an elaborate & implausible scheme. I mean his whole plan is based on the fact that he would be placed in one room, in that they would handcuff him in a certain way & that he would definitely be able to pick the locks, that they would agree with his demands to the absolute letter & that there is a air conditioning vent in the room just big enough to crawl through & that he could actually reach it as well as being able to keep total control over a hostage so they don't raise the alarm. That's an awful lot of coincidences & a whole lot of luck as well. The character's are well developed & fleshed out, they have a little bit more depth than usual I loved the monologue about the lethal injection from the FBI agent who was meant to be intimidating.<br /><br />Director Shepard does an OK job without being particularly outstanding, as a whole Oxygen is a little bland & forgettable but the solid story should paper over the lacklustre visuals. The film lacks any real tension or excitement but it does retain ones interest throughout, again thanks to the story. There isn't any violence to speak of except a gory gunshot wound at the end.<br /><br />Technically Oxygen is OK, it's competently made, there are a few nice New York shots & a couple of minor car chases although there isn't much action as it's a dialogue & storyline driven film. The acting is good especially from the two leads, Tierney as the cop & the effective Brody as the cold, calculating villain.<br /><br />Oxygen is a good thriller, it's short on action or violence but it has a good strong story to compensate. Personally I think it's well worth a watch.