Review of Buried (2010) by Tomas T — 14 Apr 2012

Being buried alive must be one of the most nightmarish situations for a human to be in and the movie "Buried" puts the viewer right in the middle of it.

Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is a contract truck driver in Iraq who wakes up into a hellish realization that he has been buried alive by Iraqi insurgents for ransom. Armed with only a cellular phone and a lighter he starts to rationalize the impossible situation. The idea of the movie is absolutely brilliant in its simplicity, as the viewer spends practically the whole 1h 30min running time right next to Paul in his death trap. The movie takes the viewer through the whole range of human emotions with frustration and desperation being the most common ones. The negative feelings Paul goes through during the movie are palpable and gruesomely abundant as it seems that for every advancement Paul makes, he is set back twice with new challenges. A movie like this hangs solely on the performance of the main actor and Ryan Reynolds succeeds fantastically in it. He keeps the viewer involved and glued to the screen for the whole movie duration.

Going any further into the movie, especially the story, without spoiling the experience is nearly impossible, and thus recommend everybody to check this gem. A warning however is in order, if you possess even the slightest hint of the claustrophobia you might be better off skipping Buried.