Yes, what you’ve heard is true — Rodrigo Cortes’ thriller “Buried” takes place entirely within a coffin. No flashbacks or other gimmicks here, its ninety minutes with Ryan Reynolds fighting for his life armed with little more than a cellphone, a Zippo, a small flask of alcohol and an indefatigable will to live. And while the story is admirably high concept, it is ultimately marred by a number of implausibilities and some tepid political commentary that sap the energy right out of the film.
Paul Conroy (Reynolds) is buried alive. He wakes up in a crudely built coffin with barely any room to move and hardly any air to breathe. He makes quick work of his surroundings and assesses what he has to work with. There is a cellphone that’s not his, his flask, a pencil, and a Zippo. And that’s about it. Miraculously getting a cellphone signal (the throwaway explanation is unconvincing; we were getting dead spots in the cinema we were in so we’re not sure how he gets bars underground) he does what anyone would do in a similar situation, he calls for help. But he is met with a staggering amount of incompetence. 911, the FBI and even the company he works for upon hearing that he is an American buried in the desert in Iraq, are quick to transfer calls or shrug their shoulders (or both). While getting those obvious avenues out of the way serves the narrative and thematic developments later, its rather clunkily handled; we’re pretty sure the FBI is trained better than we see in the film.
Anyway, Paul finally connects with the person who put the cellphone in the coffin and he learns the dire scope of this situation. He is being held hostage and has two hours to come up with $5 million dollars or he’ll be left there to rot. That’s right, terrorists have taken a page from Jigsaw to conceive the most elaborate ransom scenario possible. If this weren’t ludicrous enough, the hostage takers eventually agree to take a 1/5th of their initial demand and will accept $1 million instead. If the traps for their victims are convoluted, their ambitions it seems, are not. Now finally talking with the State Department, Paul watches the clock tick as he pleads and fights for his life with time, air and his spirit waning. As the deadline draws near he juggles phone calls between the terrorists and the State Department while trying to reach his loved ones to talk to them for one last time should he happen to die.
Just by a fluke of scheduling, we saw “Buried” after taking in another one-setting film, “127 Hours” and the differences in approach are quite distinct. Where Danny Boyle finds avenues and openings to help keep the film from becoming static, Cortes is less successful. While it was probably a choice to keep the film set entirely set within the coffin so the audience could relate directly with the claustrophobia of the situation, and while the gambit is certainly effective for a decent portion of the movie, it is isn’t long before the effect wears off. In essence, the setting is a novelty that doesn’t stand up to the film’s 90 minute running time.
But if the setting is a bit of gimmick, the performance by Ryan Reynolds is not. The film requires an actor of fortitude to be on screen and hold the audience for ninety minutes and he is more than up to task. The majority of his role requires him to plead and negotiate his way out of the situation, but the desperation is palpable and his anxiety is excellently transmitted. He is the sum whole of the picture but it’s just too bad the last fifteen or so minutes of the film let down both the premise and the actor.
If you want to see the film we’ll advise you to not let anyone tell you how it ends — and we won’t spoil it here — except to say the boldness of it fails to serve the film. We’re not sure why this B-level genre film needs to be imbued with a political allegory, and while it’s been done in the past, here it feels false and empty. The film has the kind of concept that deserves a better ending, but “Buried” puts its lead and its story in a box, and can’t seem to find a way out. [C]