BURIED - REVIEW


I have to say after all this talk of Hitchcock this and Hitchcock that I was expecting more than a "guy-in-a-box" concept movie.

To give the film credit, for a film set in a coffin it does a good job keeping you entertained throughout. Loved the opening titles...and that's all I can say really. Overall Buried was pretty...pedestrian in its writing, acting and overall storytelling. Didn't think Ryan Reynolds was particularly convincing and a lot of his panting, screaming and heavy breathing felt forced and strangely comical at times.

I also felt that the whole Irak setting and terrorist plot was obvious, clumsy and clichéd. Sure the film is a metaphor of the war etc. but it really didn't need to be. It should have just been about a guy in a box, with no recollection of how he got in, trying to call for help only to, at the end, get out and find that he's somewhere he never expected. Like a good episode of the Twilight Zone! The bad guy on the phone felt so cartoony I can't believe anyone could take that stereotype seriously. Reynolds' character you feel for, for obvious reasons, but he's not an interesting character. He might as well have been called Truck Driver #1. Maybe they should have given him a more ambiguous back story, like if it turns out he's a bad guy, a terrorist himself THEN the film would have become more interesting. Would you still want him to get out? It would raise some interesting questions I think.  

SPOILERS!!!

Another thing that pissed me off was that bit where he thinks someone is digging him out but it turns out he's still stuck in the box. Because once you've seen that, you know he's not gonna get out! It's obvious! They're not gonna dig him out right after he's had a dream about that. It's stupid. Oh and I wanted a Blackberry after the film...

So yeah, very disappointing IMO. I guess the film is Hitchcockian in that it has some suspense, it's a concept movie like Rope or Rear Window and has cool opening titles but apart from that...I don't see it. It's Hitchcockian in spirit but not so much in the way it's done. Given the same concept Hitchcock would have done something good. Buried is ok but, yeah, pretty pedestrian. Was expecting more...

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