Buried

Unintentionally a response to Danny Boyle's 127 HOURS (this one features a severed finger, an enclosed space, a single character), the sadly trash-labelled Ryan Reynolds vessel BURIED is a cynical piece of good filmmaking with a bad message. The film opens to darkness, and then the flickers of a lighter (the first of many various ways to light the small space). Ryan Reynolds' clichéd, stubble infested face comes into view, and we learn that he is just a mere truck driver in Iraq, kidnapped after an attack, and buried alive in a coffin. Searching around, Reynolds' Paul Conroy discovers only a few small items to assist him: a zippo lighter and a blackberry. The blackberry miraculously (one of the films problems is miraculous circumstances) has power (only half of the battery left) and Paul begins to call various people who he thinks could assist him. this venture carries on for about half an hour, riveting in simultaneous realizations that a) we are riveted by a film that takes place with one character in the dark in a space about 3x6ft, and b) the ridiculous lengths that Paul has to go through to get help. Things start to happen though, and Paul is finally connected tot he voice of a hostage specialist. Spanish director Rodgrigo Cortés does a very good job at finding things to happen within his limitations, and the film is very well made. However, it suffers from a cynicism and a grim insistence to make bad things keep happening that is ugly in any film. Too many half-statements and fearful quasi-anti-americanisms hinder BURIED from being the anti-film to the overly distractive and extremely fearful 127 HOURS, but it is still entertaining and (for a very long time) very fun.
Buried: ★★★