Buried

Review by Anthony Morris

After the opening credits for Buried finish, there's nothing but darkness for a long, long time. 

So long that it seems like there's something wrong with the film (and supposedly, at some cinemas, early screenings were interrupted by cinema staff convinced that something really was wrong). 

But then we hear ragged breathing and scraping noises, and eventually there's a light that reveals two things : the film's lead Ryan Renyolds, and the coffin he's trapped in.

A few other elements make their appearance eventually - a mobile phone, a knife, at one stage even a snake - but this is a film about a man trapped in a coffin and it never once lets up. 

It's a very fine line between keeping enough things happening to keep things interesting and turning the story into a farce, but for the most part this manages to keep the tension high and the events compelling without pushing it over the top. 

As the plot develops we learn that Renyolds is a US contractor in Iraq, seemingly the only survivor of a convoy ambush who has been buried for ransom - if he doesn't get the US to cough up millions for his location, they'll leave him to rot - and it's this layer that enables the story to go places a more generic entertainment couldn't (don't be expecting much in the way of payback here). 

Much of the action in the film consists of various phone conversations between the trapped civilian and either the criminals trying to use him to extort money and the forces of big business and government who aren't as concerned about his well-being as they could be. 

It's not exactly subtle, but it's a movie about a man in a coffin : whatever you're looking for in this well-crafted and suspenseful thriller, nuance and subtlety aren't here.

3.5 out of 5

Buried
Australian release: 7th October, 2010
Official Site: Buried
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Robert Paterson, José Luis García-Pérez, Stephen Tobolowsky, Samantha Mathis, Warner Loughlin, Erik Palladino, Ivana Miño
Director: Rodrigo Cortés