There’s Little Breathing Room in Grim Police Tale ‘Oxygen’

“Oxygen” could use a little fresh air. At its core it offers a raw, compelling confrontation between a troubled cop (Maura Tierney) and a clever psychopath (Adrien Brody), who is trying to force her to admit that she recognizes her dark side in him while she is trying to get him to tell her where he has buried a woman alive.

Tierney’s Madeline and Brody’s Harry are convincing and involving, and while the film is never less than tense--sometimes acutely so--much that surrounds this key situation smacks of the contrived, highlighted by an elaborate chase sequence through crowded Manhattan streets.

Writer-director Richard Shepard, whose whimsically offbeat “Linguini Incident” teamed Rosanna Arquette and David Bowie, has created challenging roles for his stars, but the rest of the film is a standard police procedural in which most of the supporting players are rather too obviously acting. Indeed, you’re always aware of them hitting their marks, and too much of the movie plays like clenched, emphatically acted TV series melodrama.

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But Tierney has the seen-it-all look and feel of a real policewoman, even if some of her moves are dubious. She and Brody, who makes Harry truly a man you love to hate, get the sparks flying in earnest, and this may be enough to make the movie worth the effort for some viewers. Harry is a gangly, smirky type whose hero is Houdini, and he’s grabbed the wife (Laila Robins) of a rich man (James Naughton) in hope of shaking him down for a cool million. Things go drastically wrong for Harry, but he’s still the only person who knows where he’s buried his kidnap victim. Robins and Naughton are both effective.

Madeline has followed in the footsteps of her father, a cop legendary for perfectionism, which has left her so screwed up that she takes refuge in the bottle and in the arms of a sleazy-looking sadist (Olek Krups) with a penchant for stubbing out his lighted cigarettes on her arm. This tips off the alert Harry that Madeline may not be quite the totally in-charge professional she strives to project.

Certainly, “Oxygen” is fast-paced and professional, but the symbiotic relationship between cop and criminal has been explored in a more convincing context in the past, most notably Richard Tuggle’s 1984 “Tightrope” with Clint Eastwood as a New Orleans policeman forced to admit that he has much in common with the sexual psychopath he is pursuing.

* MPAA rating: R, for violence and language. Times guidelines: The film is far too intense for children, with its graphic depiction of a woman being buried alive.

‘Oxygen’

Maura Tierney: Madeline

Adrien Brody: Harry

James Naughton: Clarke Hannon

Laila Robins: Frances Hannon

A Unapix Films release of a Curb Entertainment production in association with Paddy Wagon Productions. Writer-director Richard Shepard. Producers Carole Curb Neomy and Mike Curb. Executive producers Eric Reichenbaum, Marcus Ticotin, Karen J. Lauder. Cinematographer Sarah Cawley. Editor Adam Lichtenstein. Music Rolfe Kent. Costumes Barbara Presar. Production designer Rowena Rowling. Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes.

Exclusively at the Mann Westwood, 1050 Gayley Ave., Westwood Village, (310) 248-MANN.