Buried

Buried’s director Rodrigo Cortés tips his head early to Hitchcock in his film with a credit sequence that is a homage to Saul Bass. It’s a nice touch, but sadly the rest of the film fails to live up to The Master. Obviously, the relatively green Cortés can’t be expected to reach such highs so quickly, but his film fails to build up the relevant tension that was a mainstay of Hitch’s films from the get go. In Buried we following Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), a US contractor working in Iraq, who has awoken to find himself buried alive in a coffin. Struggling to escape, he finds himself with a mobile phone and so begins a game of life as Conroy desperately tries to escape from his tomb before the air runs out. Direction wise Cortés employs smart tricks involving light and camera angles, but fails to engage the audience fully in Conroy’s dilemma. I think this is because despite a few explanations, the whole thing, even with suspension of disbelief, is somewhat implausible. When Conroy is making his mobile phone calls to various agencies, Cortés’s attempts to highlight US bureaucracy is completely lost amid some of the least convincing telephone voice “acting” heard in some time and a scene where the HR manager of Conroy’s company records a conversation between themselves is so laughably ludicrous I can’t believe it survived the test screenings. To be fair to Cortés the film never drags and that’s impressive for a 90 minute feature set in only one location. He’s also helped out by Reynolds who puts in a decent, if Hollywoodish, performance. So overall, not a film you’d bury forever, but not one you’d go out of your way to help with an air straw either.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
This will be nightmare territory for some, but more seasoned veterans will be reaching for the Dutch version of The Vanishing. Rating: 5/10.