Review: Buried (2010)

"The idea of being buried alive now scares me as much as jumping from a plane does..."

Cast Members of Note- Ryan Reynolds is the only person in the film, though Samantha Mathis and a few others do lend voice support.

All there is to say about the plot of this movie is that Ryan Reynolds is a truck driver in Iraq, and he wakes up to find himself buried in a coffin-like box, in what he assumes is the desert. Alone in the box with only a lighter and cell phone, the entire movie is spent with him making calls to various people, in a desperate attempt to get himself some help.

As the movie progresses, and the plot unravels, it looks more and more like he's screwed.

To say anymore would be giving too much away, and with such a limited array of things that a tightly-plotted film like this has to work with, it's best to leave the details to your eyes for watching.

"Hey hun, it's Scarlett... I want a divorce."

"A guy trapped in a box for 90 minutes" sounds like a tough sell for a movie these days, but then again so did "A girl and her autistic brother trapped in a house during a hurricane with a hungry tiger." I'm happy to say that just like Burning Bright, the story of Buried worked extremely well in its limited confines. *No pun intended. Honest Injun.

This one man-in-a-box show had me tensed up and anxious without ever realizing that I was. At first I thought it to be decent and clever, but as the movie wore on it gripped me hard, eventually getting me so bunged up that I was ready to jump out of my seat and throw a karate kick into the air. You might not believe that such a simple premise can be so effective, but trust me, it is.

Ryan Reynolds does a great job with limited movement or other characters to interact with. It didn't take long for me to forget he was the funny actor, and believe that he was a hopelessly trapped regular guy, desperate to find someone to come help him. This is how you do suspense, folks. Nice job, Rodrigo Cortes.

Method-acting goodness.

The end. I will say no more.

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**SPOILER ALERT** (Skip this part if you don't want a pretty big plot point ruined for you.) I know this movie made some statements about a few different issues, but the biggest of them all was the way that Big Business throws the little man to the wolves. So a truck driver is ambushed, kidnapped, buried alive and held for "ransom" somewhere in Iraq, and the head of personnel for his company fires him while he's buried alive, to avoid culpability and paying out any type of damages or insurance to his family? There was no "we will get you out of this" or "we will take care of your family, don't worry," only "we're going to make up an excuse to fire you, because we can't be held libel for this shit." Wow. A strong message indeed, and sadly, a very true one.

Sadly, it ends like that for most people.

Ryan Reynolds cuts off a digit, but that's about it.

Nothing to see here, folks.

"Okay, fuck you."

Don't drive trucks in Iraq. Also, your boss most likely hates you.

Also, maybe conserve your oxygen.

If you want to tense up for about 90 minutes and feel true, hopeless despair, then Buried is the movie for you. I have to say that if you're claustrophobic, even mildly, this movie will probably give you a panic attack; I'm not so bad with tight spaces, and I found myself a ball of nerves for nearly the entire running time. Ryan Reynolds in a box for 90 minutes seems like a lame concept, but he and the filmmakers deliver the goods with his one. See Buried asap. If you're so inclined, that is.

A

Buried is available now on Blu-ray, and VOD.

The voice of Samantha Mathis is in this.