Buried

Let's spend 90 minutes in a box with Ryan Reynolds. See what happens when one man is buried alive and has to use a mobile phone to help get himself out.

This is a very brave film. Being able to sustain a story for 90 minutes when all you see is one man in a coffin. He does have a mobile phone to talk to the outside world and must negotiate his way out of it. Which is where the thrills lie. It is a bit of a gimmick to do something like this and the skill is in trying to sustain it for as long as you can. I think writer Chris Sparling and director Rodrigo Cortes do a very good job of keeping you interested for the films length. But the problem is that you are constantly thinking about the concept and not getting involved in the story. I was continually thinking about what would happen next to keep things going and not being involved in Paul's story and become emotionally involved in whether he lives or dies. It is also incredibly frustrating. We as an audience know what Paul's situation is but the people he calls do not. They usually come to the situation with skepticism about what is really happening. So it is frustrating as an audience when people just don't really believe what is happening to him. I'm going to spoil the story here so please don't read any more if you want to be surprised. Bearing in mind I've not been buried alive and do not know what happens but I got the impression that Paul could have tried a bit harder to get out. He has a knife and if I was there I would try to cut through the wood to break it. At one stage towards the end the wood in the lid does break and the dirt starts filling the box. We are also told that Paul is not buried that far down. He can actually hear things above ground so obviously once he gets through the wood it would not be that hard to dig his way out. The dirt would not be too hard to dig through either as he was only recently buried.

Ryan Reynolds is a very brave actor to take on this role. Not only is he confined to a small space but he has to keep our interest for the entire length of the film. He does a very good job and does hold us captivated.

This is one of those situations that a lot of people fear the most. Not really a film for those people who get claustrophobic but otherwise a good thriller.