Film Review: Buried

A film that took me a while to watch, Buried seemed to polarize opinion with everyone I knew that watched it. They either loved it or hated it. Usually for the same reasons - it was just one guy, it was all set in the same place...but now I've finally watched it I seem to be the only person I know who sort of sits in the middle.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Paul Conroy, a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq, transporting supplies. His convoy is attacked by a group of Iraqis and he wakes up to find himself in a coffin, buried alive.

That's pretty much the premise, without revealing too much that happens along the way. While the plot is straight forward there are many entertaining twists and turns along the way to keep it just being a guy in a box for 90 minutes. There's a lot going on.

Reynolds is great as Conroy and really puts you in his shoes, switching between blind panic and reasoning as the film goes on. It must have been quite the ordeal to get through a shoot in those circumstances, which is a good a time as any to bring up this safety warning - if you are in any way claustrophobic, I'd give Buried a miss, it just gets worse and worse as it goes on.

Reynolds is the only character in the film you see, but there's a few guest stars making 'voice' appearances such as Samantha Mathis and Stephen Tobolowsky (whose voice I actually recognised, sadly enough!) as Conroy's wife and a figure from his company respectively.

But for all it's good points, it's hardly the jaw dropping phenomenon people would have you believe. There are limitations the film sets itself with it's premise. You can only go so far with it. And it's all entertaining enough, but I wasn't left astounded. And it's not the most original of ideas either, this kind of thing has been done before (albeit not to the scale of having it just be a one actor scenario - I may be wrong there, let me know.)

Buried was one of those films, I enjoyed while it was on, but didn't see what all the fuss was about (A bit like The Hangover in a way), but at the same time didn't think it deserved the bile spat at it from some people. Well worth checking out to see what side of the fence you sit on, or like me, if you sit on top of it.

***
An OK film, not deserving of the praise or the slatings it received when it was released. Reynolds is great, there's some entertaining plot developments but once it's done...it's done.