‘Oxygen’ movie review: A claustrophobic film experience that breathes due to Melanie Laurent’s grit

It’s virtually as if French filmmaker Alexandre Aja knew what the state of affairs in India could be like in the course of the second wave of COVID-19. His newest movie revolves round a protagonist who wakes up in a medical cryo unit and should race in opposition to time to rebuild her reminiscence earlier than she runs out of oxygen.

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The protagonist, performed by an emotive Melanie Laurent, doesn’t even know her title for a lot of the movie. She’s simply known as unit quantity 0267; she might need been somebody standard in actual life, however on the market, she is only a quantity.

However then, who precisely is she? Extra importantly, the place is she?

The movie kickstarts together with her discovering out that she has just one good friend — the AI console named MILO — and that she is working out of oxygen. She tries contacting the police, however that doesn’t assist her. In between the numerous shrieks and huffing and puffing, 0267 has to search out out about her previous and the clues hidden in it to get out of the ordeal.

Oxygen makes use of all of the acquainted tropes of movies primarily based within the survival drama style; now we have seen comparable makes an attempt in Danny Boyle’s 2010 flick 127 Hours, Malayalam movie Helen, and its Tamil remake Anbirkiniyal in current occasions. However what makes Oxygen stand out is that it makes use of futuristic and sci-fi parts so as to add intrigue to the travails of the protagonist.

This movie is certainly a troublesome watch, particularly so in immediately’s occasions once we maintain studying in regards to the want for oxygen in lots of locations in India. That it has a solitary location of a cryo unit (which mainly appears like a coffin with many computerised controls hooked up to it) makes issues harder for the viewer. However, Alexandre, with the ample assist of his lead actor, weaves collectively a story that retains you more often than not, save for the underwhelming previous few minutes.

Be careful for a few of the thrilling moments. Like when the protagonist has to harm herself with the intention to discover out one thing essential. Or a lot later, when she makes a startling discovery that may assist her make some headway. Melanie Laurent offers her all in these scenes, and whereas all this retains you , the shortage of fleshing of the opposite characters within the movie is a tad disappointing.

The ethereal music additionally provides to the drama in Oxygen. In an early scene, the protagonist is lit with hues of purple and black, consistently flickering out and in. She abruptly wakes up, and appears round with beleaguered uncertainty. It’s the identical type of uncertainty with which life, and possibly oxygen in India, is in the mean time.

Oxygen is at the moment streaming on Netflix