Review: Buried

2010 seems to be the year of films which are set in small confined spaces. Firstly we had the tank-based drama Lebanon followed by the lift-set Devil and now we have Buried focusing on Paul Conroy, a contractor in Iraq who has been Buried alive in a coffin. And it is the coffin that is the setting for the entire 90 minutes or so of the film and it is Paul who is the solitary figure on screen. The film's premise centres around Paul finding out firstly why he's in the coffin and secondly how he can get out of it. He has been left with a mobile phone, a lighter and luckily a pencil and some water. While in the coffin he is contacted several times by his captors and has to quickly try and respond to their demands in order to secure his freedom. This leads him on a wild goose chase phoning his family, friends, the FBI, the CIA, the media and the company he is working for.

Out of all the films I've seen this year, Buried is surely one of the most original. The concept of spending 90 minutes in a coffin with only Ryan Reynolds for company is the stuff of nightmares luckily the time passed pretty quickly. Reynolds is a revelation here proving that he has a life outside romantic or puerile comedy films. He portrays Paul as the every-man who is just in Iraq on a routine job and isn't quite sure why he's the one they're after. He works well in a very confined space to put across a man who after a while knows there's little help of escape and does it very well. The film also has moments of thrills most notably a scene involving a snake and the tension is upped in the film's very last moments which will leave you on the edge of your seats. The script also covers such topics as foreign relations, terrorist negoitations and corporate betrayal but never offers any real political views on any of them. Buried isn't by any means a perfect film but, if you can stomach it, its a very compelling and interesting film if not one that will ever stand up to repeat viewings.