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Duane Dudek | On Film

Critic's Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Skillful thriller is 94 minutes of claustrophobia

Ryan Reynolds spent 2½ weeks crammed in various boxes while filming “Buried.”

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate


The title of "Buried" needs a second word - "Alive" - to truly communicate its horror. That may make something with higher aspirations sound too much like a genre film. But since it actually works on two levels, primal and cerebral, this psychologically gripping tale should be happy for anything that makes audiences think twice.

Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive, something Edgar Allan Poe exploited in stories like "The Premature Burial."

"Buried" taps that same fear while tailoring it to modern sensibilities. Burying someone alive requires the same premeditation as an act of terrorism. But the victims of terrorism are randomly chosen and unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Combining those two ideas, in the film directed by Rodrigo Cortés from a screenplay by Chris Sparling, amplifies the terror of each.

"Buried" stars Ryan Reynolds as a civilian contractor, a truck driver, working in Iraq.

When we meet him for the first time, he has just awakened to find himself buried in a coffin in the desert, with a cell phone, matches and some water. For the next 94 minutes the action, for lack of a better word, never leaves that small cramped underground casket or Reynolds' sweaty, bloodied face.

Who put him there is unclear, but why they did it and what they want is explained in a phone call demanding a ransom. Kidnapping, it turns out, is one of the few functioning businesses in the country. His claims that he is an innocent bystander and not in the military fall on deaf ears since everyone in a war zone is either a combatant or collateral damage.

As his cell phone battery dwindles, he calls home, directory assistance, his employer and the military, hoping to raise the ransom or be rescued. He gets answering machines, incredulous operators, the neutral banalities of bureaucrats, wrong numbers and elevator music when he is placed on hold. In the process he achieves a series of small victories but as time starts running out, the pace accelerates from panic to desperation, his breathing grows rapid and the outcome boils down to a last-minute rescue or suffocation.

The claustrophobic setting, ticking clock and innocent-man theme are reminiscent of "Rope," in which Alfred Hitchcock used the limitations of time and space as production design elements. Cortes similarly crafts a heightened sense of awareness out of the less-is-more scenario. The result is a skillful thriller with a strong point of view that is also confident in its use of genre flourishes.

Until now, it has been easy to dismiss Reynolds, best known for romantic comedies, as a male ingénue. "Buried" moves him into awards contention in the same way his co-star in "The Proposal," Sandra Bullock, turned "The Blind Side" into Oscar bait. But "Buried" represents more than a career change for him.

Reynolds' work here is a wrenching piece of performance art about what it's like to be a casualty of war.

Buried *** 1/2

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Stephen Tobolowsky, Robert Paterson.

Behind the scenes: Produced by Adrian Gurerra and Peter Safran. Written by Chris Sparling. Directed by Rodrigo Cortés.

Rated: R; language, mature theme, some violent content.

Approximate running time: 94 minutes


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