Oxygen

In OXYGEN, Richard Shepard has refined his approach to character-driven crime thrillers first seen in his previous, also excellent film, MERCY. Armed with experience and a bigger budget, Shepard has wrested outstanding performances from Maura Tierney and Adrien Brody, in their best work to date. Both characters are quite believable, and their defects are gently extracted and displayed by the subtle script. There are no stereotypes or one-dimensional characters in the whole film.

This is not to say that this is some esoteric, art-house movie, suitable only for clove-smoking turtleneck-wearers. The action scenes are well-executed and edited. Camera work is very nice; the long Steadicam shot in the train is especially memorable. Tension holds on throughout, and even the asides (such as an FBI agent's humorous soliloquy about the death penalty) integrate well and don't distract.

I sure would like to see what Richard Shepard could do if given some Really Big Bucks.