As far as thrillers go, Alexandre Aja's
Oxygène is a nightmarish exercise in claustrophobia and a thought-provoking examination of identity and isolation. A woman (a phenomenal Mélanie Laurent) is jolted awake from hypersleep in a cryogenic pod with no recollection whatsoever of who she is or how she got there, but with oxygen levels dwindling she must team up with an intelligent voice assistant named MILO to find a way out. More restrained in approach than his previous schlock horror outings
Piranha 3D and
Crawl, Aja, aided by nifty shots from veteran cinematographer Maxime Alexandre, creates a vivid and cinematic atmosphere that's defined by its confined setting which amplifies a steadily mounting dread, even as the unsettling first act increasingly looks like smoke and mirrors, as it plants more convenient red herrings en route to its unexpected, if ultimately unsatisfying and hastily cobbled, destination. The midway twist can be spotted a mile away (it certainly didn't help that I was reading Andy Weir's
Hail Mary, which opens with a similar plot device), but the contained, taut, and toned-down approach makes for a nail-biting voyage. A high-concept existential thriller.
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