A One Mann’s Movies review of “Oxygen” (2021).
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
In “Oxygen” (or “Oxygene” in the original French version) Liz Hansen (Mélanie Laurent) wakes up in a sealed chamber with no memory of why she is there or how she got there. Her only “companion” is ‘Milo’: the Alexa-like operating system for the chamber. Milo helpfully advises her that her oxygen supply is already down below 40%, and falling.
Can she piece together her swiss-cheese brain to find a way out of her predicament?
That moment you wake up, not knowing quite where you are. (Source: Netflix).
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Melanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, (dubbed in the English version I watched by Cherami Leigh and Clive Standen), Malik Zidi.
Directed by: Alexandre Aja.
Written by: Christie LeBlanc.
A ridiculously implausible scene…. nobody has PPE. (Source: Netflix).
“Oxygen” Review:
Positives:
- No spoilers here, but this is a ‘small’ mystery movie that goes off in a VERY surprising direction. The script is genuinely unpredictable.
- Mélanie Laurent gives a strong performance as the heroine near the end of her tether.
- Although this is a French film, don’t let that put you off. Netflix gives options of the original French, French with subtitles and an English dub. And the English dubbing is so good that it took me until some sub-titles for text written in French before I realised it was dubbed!
Memories or hallucination? You decide. (Source: Netflix).
Negatives:
- After the long drip-drip-drip of context, I found the ending to be something of a disappointment. Too twee.
- I found something morally dubious about the ‘re-routing’ request near the end of the movie. (Although, I’m sure given the options, I would probably do the same!)
- If you don’t like jump scares, you are likely to spill a lot of hot drinks while watching this one!
The hospital’s Spaghetti Bolognese was definitely not to her liking (Source: Netflix).
Warnings
I occasionally stick into my reviews ‘viewer advisories’. You won’t need me to comment that this one will be a no-no for anyone suffering from claustrophobia. But I will add to that, since it’s not obvious, that this is a movie that is also not suitable for musophobics: those with a fear of mice.
Also, IMDB describes this one as “Drama, Fantasy, Sci-fi”. Not Horror. But be warned that there are some genuinely effective jump scares in this one!
Summary Thoughts on “Oxygen”:
You can recognize a ‘lockdown-produced movie’ a mile off. Typically it focuses on a handful of players, who are mostly socially isolated. Here is a classic example. Yet by doing that, the director is forced to focus in on character and dialogue. As such, some of these ‘small’ movies that reign in the director’s excesses are far better as a result.
“Oxygen” is a case in point. When I saw that the film was directed by Alexandre Aja – the man behind the OTT “Piranha 3D” and the equally OTT popcorn-croc movie “Crawl” from 2 years ago, I feared the worst. But this an intriguing little movie that mystifies and jolts in equal measure.
There is probably no such thing anymore as a truly novel thriller or science fiction film. And this draws recognisably from a host of other movies: I personally recognised elements from “Room“, “Solaris”, “Moon” and “Gravity” in there. But the closest similarity is definitely to the Ryan Reynolds 2010 thriller “Buried” which features a very similar initial set-up. If “Oxygen” were to have pulled out an ending like that film (if you haven’t watched it yet – do so!) then it would have been a mini-classic.
Trailer:
The teaser trailer for “Oxygen” is here (and is delightfully spoiler-free): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6oLsCHgSwg .
