Review of Buried (2010) by Patrick M — 07 May 2012

Oh man, I haven't seen a thriller so breathtaking as "Buried" in some time now.

An american truck driver, working in Iraq, is trapped inside of a coffin underground with a cellphone, a zippo, a flask, and a few other things looking to find a way out before his time runs out.

I still remember people ranting in the movie theater once the movie ended the first time I went to see it, all the while I held a big smile on my face, I felt heartbroken, but in a good way. The movie didn't only succeed in a technical level, I also felt genuinely scared by it and couldn't wait to tell all my friends to see it to have them feel the same.

The screenwriting is just incredible, with the way it starts with a seemingly effortless plot and ends up expanding the story without really going anywhere. It's similar in a way to the TV series "Lost", with people stuck on an island, yet the writers kept on adding so much to what first seemed like a simple story, the only difference is that "Lost" was surrealistic and made great use of flashbacks, while "Buried" is realistic and doesn't cheat by showing us the protagonist's past, giving us the feeling that we're stuck in the coffin with him.

It's also safe to say that the movie, unlike other horror movies, does hold up to repeat viewings. I felt just as tense watching it this time as I did when I first saw it. The visuals were pretty good for a movie taking place in a coffin. I could feel Paul's (Ryan Reynolds) hope for survival and at other times I could also feel his hopelessness.

I recognized a few different things by watching it again, like how good Ryan Reynolds was in this carrying the whole film by himself, and apart from that I realized the real meaning of the film and the themes it's actually dealing with. Something tells me that deep in its core, this isn't just an above average suspense movie. What I mean is that, metaphorically speaking, "Buried" is just an anti-Iraq war movie as "Green Zone" or "Fahrenheit 9/11" like Martin Scorsese's short "The Big Shave" was about his feelings against the Vietnam war. I don't know if this is what director Rodrigo Cortes intended to do with his debut feature, but it was what I interpreted after rewatching it this time.

I'd recommend it to anyone in the mood for a gripping thriller, specially anyone who liked "Panic Room", "Saw", "The Call", "The Vanishing", "Rope", "Platoon", and/or "Kill Bill: Vol. 2".