Buried

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jose Luis Garria Perez (voice), Robert Paterson (voice), Stephen Tobolowsky (voice), Samantha Mathis (voice)
Directed by: Rodrigo Cortes
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
2010

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: An American contractor (Ryan Reynolds) in Iraq wakes up to find himself buried in a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone, he makes a frantic struggle to survive.

Review:

Tim: I want to start out by saying that I am disappointed with Buried when I heard about the idea and the movie, I was blown away. It received terrific reviews from critics, and it seemed like a very good movie- a claustrophobic, frightening, nerveracking film. The movie had loads of potential, but squandered so much of it. When I saw this film in theaters, I would have given it a 6.5. After some time to reflect, I am willing to be gentler on this film and consider it a good movie (but just barely).

Let's start out with the positives. Buried does create a tense, claustrophobic feeling by delivering a movie that takes place entirely in a buried coffin. The only actor we see the whole film (I'm obviously ignoring the end of the film so I don't spoil whether he escapes the coffin or not) is Ryan Reynolds, and he spends the entire film in a box. That is a unique idea for a movie, and it puts a great deal of pressure on Reynolds. He had to carry the entire film.

Director Rodrigo Cortes made this movie almost as a filmmaking experiment. Can you make a compelling, interesting film using an absolutely minimalist approach? This idea hasn't been tried before, and it's pretty amazing what can be accomplished with so little on screen. I loved this basic premise, even if I had some complaints about the execution.

Ryan Reynolds deserves a great deal of credit for his performance here. It cannot be easy to carry an entire film completely and totally by yourself, but he does that here. I loved the attempt and the effort on Reynolds' part. I think he deserves a great deal of credit for his acting prowess. That being said, I also have some complaints. He grunted and moaned and screamed far too much for me. An hour and a half of his heavy breathing and grunting was just too much for it. It annoyed me. I also lament the script that made him do some moronic things. Yes, I understand that if you were slowly dying in a buried coffin, you wouldn't be at your emotional or mental best. And yet, the character of Paul Conroy just does so many stupid things that it ended up being distracting. So, Reynolds hurts the movie in some ways, but I also applaud him for doing this. It was not an easy role, and he makes the movie more than he hurts it.

I also have to give credit to this film for creating an uncomfortable movie. I actually felt physical and mental discomfort from watching this film. I wasn't relaxed or necessarily enjoying it- it was too suspenseful and contained for any of those emotions. This isn't an easy film to watch, and I appreciated that.

However, this film has some major flaws. So much of the film seems silly or unrealistic. There were specific scenes and actions taken that just didn't seem to be based in reality. It felt like in addition to telling a haunting, troubling story, the movie also tried to deliver messages about Iraq, corporate America, etc. These messages detracted from the film and felt like a waste of time. The film has a brilliant concept, but it does get a bit old. There's not enough in the basic idea to sustain our frenzied interest for 95 minutes. Before the conclusion, I felt my interest and my energy go out after an hour. The next 20-25 minutes felt tortuously long and a bit boring. The movie runs out of steam 2/3 of the way through, before picking it back up for the finale. Speaking of the conclusion, it's a powerful, memorable, inspired ending. Still, I was hoping for just a little bit more.

I really struggle with Buried. I wanted to love it, even though I clearly could not. I love the idea and concept, but I think the movie fails to live up to its potential. I don't really like the movie all that much, but I am giving it some bonus points for its unique minimalist approach, and the fact that Reynolds delivers a strong one-man performance. These unique factors push this film JUST over the line from "decent" to "good," but this is definitely a weak "7" in my book.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Nines