OXYGEN (2021 - French)

Studio:      Netflix
Director:    Alexandre Aja
Writer:      Christie LeBlanc
Producer:  Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, Noemie Devide, Vincent Maraval, Brahim Chioua
Stars:     Melanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi

Review Score:

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Summary:

A woman with amnesia suddenly wakes to find herself inexplicably trapped in a cryogenic pod with a steadily depleting air supply.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Due to a system failure, Dr. Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Hansen suddenly wakes with amnesia to find herself trapped inside a cryogenic pod. MILO, an AI Medical Interface Liaison Operator programmed to tend to Liz’s medical needs, warns Liz that her oxygen level is steadily depleting.

Liz manages to contact the police through the computer’s central data line. Unable to recall why she is in the pod or who put her there, Liz provides the chamber’s serial number in hopes that the police can locate and free her.

Captain Moreau takes over the call. Moreau explains that Liz’s cryogenic unit was supposedly destroyed three years ago. However, Moreau promises to keep working with the manufacturer Cryosalide to access the administrator codes that would give Liz control over the pod’s unlocking protocol. The call ends.

While suffering from hallucinations and strange bouts of lost time, Liz accesses article archives that identify her as a controversial cryogenics biologist. Liz also remembers having a terminally ill husband named Leo Ferguson. Liz tries calling Leo, but an old woman answers who instructs Liz not to call again before abruptly hanging up.

Moreau calls Liz. Liz tells Moreau about Leo, but Moreau tells Liz she never married. Liz also recalls her mother Alice, but Moreau claims her mother’s name was Isabelle. Leo’s name and face inexplicably disappear from the records Liz accessed earlier. Moreau tells Liz her unreliable memory is playing tricks on her as he details more foggy facts about her life.

Liz suspects Moreau is lying and may be part of a kidnapping conspiracy. After the call ends, Liz replays the audio and hears a voice in the background coaching Moreau on what to say.

The old woman who previously answered Leo’s phone calls back. The woman says Leo is dead. Liz tries ending the transmission, but the woman frantically insists she is the only person who can help Liz because she knows what is really going on. Desperate to escape, Liz demands the administrator access code. The woman reluctantly provides the password, but implores Liz not to unlock the pod. The woman instead convinces Liz to turn her centrifuge setting to zero. Liz does so, and discovers she is weightless due to being in outer space.

The woman explains that the human race has been dying out. Liz was part of a Ministry of Defense mission sent to colonize another planet. Liz was supposed to be suspended in hypersleep, but something went wrong with her pod, which the woman created.

When Liz alerted the police to her situation, the Ministry stepped in to guide communications because humanity’s impending demise is not public knowledge. Authorities kept the truth from Liz because the fog of memory made her reactions unpredictable and they feared she might incite a panic. They instead stalled for time to prevent Liz’s memory from returning.

The woman confirms Leo died from the same virus that killed millions of people. She also reveals Liz has been in hypersleep for 12 years. With Liz nearly out of air as well as passing satellite communication range, the woman begins walking Liz through the procedure to return to hypersleep before her oxygen depletes. However, unknown people suddenly take the woman by force. Before the call ends, the woman tells Liz that Leo is the key to unlocking her memory.

Liz gets electrocuted while tampering with her unit’s lid. The experience triggers memories of Leo being defibrillated on his deathbed. Liz calls her mother Alice, but the call cuts out.

Liz disables her pod’s ultraviolet filter. Through a porthole, Liz sees she is in one of 10,000 pods aboard a spacecraft. Hundreds of other pods show damage from an asteroid collision.

On a hunch, Liz uses the computer to look for a pod containing Leo. Liz finds one, and sees Leo does not have his facial scar.

Liz investigates deeper into her past. Liz discovers she was researching memory transfers in addition to cryogenics. Liz ultimately realizes she is a clone, along with everyone else suspended in the pods, and that the real Liz was the old woman on the phone who also engineered all of them.

Liz records a message for the cloned Leo and then narrowly avoids an automated euthanasia protocol. With her own oxygen level too low to survive eventual resuscitation, Liz diverts air from the damaged pods into her unit. MILO puts Liz into hypersleep so she can survive the rest of the trip. Some time later, Liz reunites with Leo when they awaken on the new planet.

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Review:

Director Rodrigo Cortes’ 2010 thriller “Buried” did more than entertain me. It made me neon green with envy.

The concept was brilliant. One man buried alive in a coffin, uncertain of the circumstances surrounding his situation and growing increasingly desperate to escape. “Buried” became a front-to-back clinic on how to cleverly craft an indie that incorporates its low budget directly into creative design. All it takes is a small indoor set that allows for comfortably controlled shooting conditions. A simple plot connected to a constantly ticking time bomb of tension. Then tie everything together with a big name actor who instantly attracts investors and audiences alike. Admired and imitated to this day, “Buried” is a needle-moving achievement in economically efficient filmmaking and I really, really wish I had thought of it first.

Alas, screenwriter Chris Sparling thought of it first. Which makes Christie LeBlanc’s script for director Alexandre Aja’s “Oxygen” at least the second attempt at an identical premise, not counting any other copycats that came in between. Other than a sci-fi sheen making this movie more eye-catchingly colorful than “Buried’s” dirty darkness, “Oxygen” is essentially the exact same thing right up until a late inning revelation redirects the story down a slightly different path.

After an unknown accident causes a malfunction, Dr. Liz Hansen wakes up trapped inside a cryogenic stasis pod. She doesn’t remember where she physically is or how she got there. Until MILO, her pod’s AI computer system, helps her fill in a few blanks, Liz isn’t even sure who she is. All she does know is she desperately wants to escape, but Liz’s befuddled brain isn’t exactly sure where or how to begin making that happen.

In terms of what we see onscreen, one more “other thing” that “Oxygen” initially brings to mind is “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Just as Elisabeth Moss is often framed during June’s scenes of agonizing distress, “Oxygen’s” space-limited camera constantly closes in on actress Melanie Laurent’s wide-eyed, tear-streaked, sweat-stained face. The film’s early going stocks up on several nail-biting sequences where Liz tears free from suffocating plastic mesh, painfully pulls intravenous tubes from her arms, and frenziedly gasps for air like a red-frocked woman being tormented while Aunt Lydia solemnly observes.

It’s actually just us observing. “Oxygen” makes its viewers passive participants more than actively empathetic ones. We may be locked in the chamber with her, but Liz is surrounded by bright lights, holographic HUDs, medical monitors, even an obscured porthole providing a window to whatever waits outside. With a surprising amount of maneuverability, Liz’s predicament can’t hold a candle to the claustrophobia Ryan Reynolds endured.

“Oxygen” takes us out of the pod whenever Liz’s mind mulls a flashback, something “Buried” also did to keep from feeling like it was hopelessly cramped. Also like “Buried” (a comparison that can’t help but come up repeatedly due to practically plagiarized similarities), “Oxygen” further opens up its predominantly one-woman show through telephone calls that allow various voices to interact with Liz while advancing her story.

I’ve got to believe that anyone impressed with “Oxygen” has to be someone to whom the setup seems unfamiliar, and I say that as someone who wishes I had a similar blindspot so I too could be bowled over by the recycled concept. Strictly speaking about individual merits, how can “Oxygen” be anything other than a passably palatable movie? Combine the expressive acting of Melanie Laurent with the experienced directing of Alexandre Aja and of course they’re going to come up with something suspenseful, even if it is redundant. The final swerve regarding “what’s really going on” introduces a compelling twist to shake some rust off the sense of déjà vu. But an “I’ve been down this road before” ghost still haunts proceedings to hold back any ingenuity from feeling truly original or imaginative.

Bringing up “Buried” one final time, “Oxygen” reminds me of how I watched that 2010 film on an airplane. It turned out to be a great setting for a compact little time-passer, and would fit well for “Oxygen” too.

Juiced by enough intrigue to keep you guessing while simultaneously being streamlined, “Oxygen” doesn’t require a massive screen or a full “bells and whistles” experience. You can casually enjoy it during dinner and, even with subtitles, occasionally glance down at your plate without running the risk of missing anything memorable.

To phrase it specifically for viewers who’ve been around the straight-to-streaming block more than a few times, no matter how much or how little you enjoy the film overall, “Oxygen” stays on par with every other “it’s alright” Netflix thriller with decent production value for a modest budget. What else has anyone come to expect from the streaming giant’s routine original features?

Review Score: 55

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