Saturday 10 December 2011

Buried (2010)



Ryan Reynolds is Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working in Iraq. Following an attack on his convoy he is kidnapped, and the film begins with Paul waking up in a coffin, buried 6 ft under. Director Rodrigo Cortés has made a remarkable film, he has managed to make a 90 minute film about one man in a box; and he has made it exciting and gripping too! Via some ingenious film-making and engineering techniques (apparently seven coffins were built), Cortés really leaves no part of the coffin un-explored. There is quite a tremendous moment when the camera tracks 360° round Reynolds, yet the coffin walls are all intact when we view the side opposite; very clever.

I have only recently seen Reynolds in Green Lantern, where I thought he looked bored most of the time; and a long time ago I saw him in Van Wilder: Party Liaison. In Buried he's fairly brilliant; it's just him, a phone, a Zippo, some glow-sticks and a torch for 90 minutes. He starts out desperate, and becomes increasingly desperate throughout the film; he is intense, very convincing and you don't for a second of his performance imagine that a camera and half a dozen people are looking in on him.

The situation is reminiscent of 127 hours and of James Franco's performance. However, where Franco's "journey" was edited along with flashbacks and self-analysis, there is nothing of the sort for Reynolds and nowhere for him to hide. Don't get me wrong I think Franco's performance is phenomenal too, it is just down to the different styles of story telling of Danny Boyle and Rodrigo Cortés.

Buried is really a wonderful example of inventive film-making: being able to make one man in a box fascinating is quite a challenge. Not just for director and actor, but DP, cameraman, sound department, everyone involved. The likes of Michael Bay could learn a thing or two; you don't need to just blow shit up to make an exciting film. Buried is a very tense, exciting and very well-crafted thriller, with quite an unexpected, memorable ending too.


4 comments:

  1. Great review! I've heard nothing but good things about this movie, I think it's about time I check it out. Ryan Reynolds has yet to really impress me, but if he can hold my attention for 90 minutes in a box, I'm sold.

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  2. Ryan Reynolds does a great job here and the whole film just leads up to the last 5 seconds which were probably the most tense I felt in 2010. Good review.

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  3. Great review, Russ. I was tempted to see this when it came out but never did. You've sparked my interest in it again!

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  4. M. Hufstader: Definitely worth checking out. I hadn't really seen any reason to like Reynolds, but like you I had heard great things about the film. He doesn't really get to be very badass though, being stuck in a box the entire time!

    Cheers Dan O. I agree that the ending was very tense, and Reynolds did a great job of getting us 100% invested in his story.

    Claire: I'm glad my review has renewed your interest, I thoroughly recommend it; unless of course you're very claustrophobic! This was on my Lovefilm list for a while, and finally popped through my letterbox last week.

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