Buried

Introduction

There's not many films that are set in a single location or to be more specific in a box. I can think of the rather dreary Phone Booth fronted by Colin Farrell, and that was set above ground and in a phone box - even then it was only worthy of watching due to a cameo by Keifer Sutherland at the end. On the other hand, one of the best CSI episodes was the one directed by Quentin Tarentino, where he took one of the main characters and buried him whilst his mates tried to unravel various clues to find him. That's probably the nearest we come to Buried, although that also had a lot of action above ground involving all the other main characters - something you don't get with Buried, the latest film from Rodrigo Cortes.

Buried starts in complete darkness and some minor noise that quickly turns into blind panic. Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is a truck driver who wakes up underground in a wooden box, with no idea as to how he got there or who is responsible for his current surroundings. As initial panic starts to subside, Conroy finds he has been buried with a mobile phone (display set in Arabic), a lighter and a pencil. Using all the tools at his disposal, and very much aware of his surroundings and limited oxygen, Conroy uses the tools at his disposal and attempts to piece together clues to work out where he might be.

It turns out that Conroy is a civilian contractor working as a truck driver in Iraq delivering aid supplies. His convoy was attacked and some of his fellow contractors killed but Conroy blacked out after an explosion. His communication with the outside world starts with his wife, who he never initally manages to reach, and the company he works for, Eventually he gets through to the State Dept and a hostage 'comforter' called Dan Brenner (Robert Paterson), who attempts to strike up a relationship and keep him calm whilst they're looking for him. In the meantime, a mysterious caller informs him that he must arrange delivery of $5 million by the evening or he will die.

With oxygen becoming scarcer by the minute and the battery on his phone getting ever lower (not to mention the sketchy network coverage), it's a race against time to get Conroy out of his wooden tomb.

Picture

A brave decision to shoot this entire film in a wooden box, with no shots whatsoever of the outside world and no flashback scenes. Everything occurs within the box, with a number of different lighting options. First there's just darkness, then there's the sporadic flickering of a lighter and then the green glow of glo-sticks. It's a decent attempt at trying to convey a feeling of claustrophobia and it works well.

As per usual with an Icon review disc, it's a DVD-R with a "Property of" banner appearing sporadically across the feature time.

Extras

None on my disc but there appear to some on the retail versions of the disc.

Overall

This is a rather superb enclosed film set in real time and dealing with a very real situation. There are little clues everywhere throughout this film that hint at the ending, and it's quite a good ending really with a slightly telegraphed payoff in all truth, but it works well in my view.

It must be said that this is a more realistic view of Us response to a kidnapping that you don't normally see in films. Generally the tech is so good that they can find a hostage within a couple of minutes and send either a lone hero or the massed ranks of Navy SEALs to rescue the hostage and blow everyone else away. Here you discover that Conroy really is on his own and can only hope that they can find him, and hopefully before he get blown up by his own side who manage to send in planes to drop bombs near his position. What was shocking, but in reality completely unsurprising, was the actions of his company in attempting to mitigate their responsibilities. Some people found this unbelieveable but sadly I didn't.

It's a bit of a risk having a single actor try to carry a film but Ryan Reynolds does a superb job in making the character and situation feel real, running the gamut of emotions throughout his relatively short ordeal - the film playing out in real time. There is a bit of a desperate attempt to ratchet up the tension with the inclusion of a snake but you can forgive that when you consider it's probably a five minute disctraction across ninety minutes.

I didn't think I would enjoy this one too much, what with it being a man in a box, but I think this film is superb and keeps the tension wound tight until the very end.