Buried, 2010

Buried, 2010
Director: Rodrigo Cortes
Cast: Ryan Reynolds


Stage: home theatre


Buried in short: Waking groggy in pitch darkness, Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working as a contractor in Iraq in 2006, slowly realizes he is trapped inside a wooden coffin, buried alive. With his cigarette lighter, he can see the trap he is in, and he quickly realizes that there's not enough air for him to live long. He finds within the coffin a working cellphone, which allows him contact with the outside world. But the outside world proves not to be very helpful at finding a man buried in a box in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Paul must rely on his best resource--himself.

Preps: Wanted to see this piece on LIFFE, the movie festival, but I missed it. Heard a great deal about it and wanted to see it badly. Now I get it at home..


Reality: A strong reminder, how little we are to the society and how the importance is being measured as long as we are valuable. To be blackmailed is nothing really new, but to be buried underground, figuring out how long your cellular is going to hold and not being able to get to anyone that could help, is another story indeed. The plot seems vague and empty in the beginning, but later on the movie turns out to be a critic of US staying in Iraq, all the innocent people trying to get money for their service, turning out in hands of terorrists to be blackmailed - the movie is filled with negative pesimism, that can drive the viewer mad in thinking, how did we get this far.

Having governmental bureacreacy up to this level, tailored to serve the citizens, ending up in serving themselves, is simply to ironic to handle. Too much of black humour /irony - or shall we say or admit truth in this piece it will rock your soul. What would you do in order to get out of the box is one thing - Paul in this case can do nothing really important. Who to call, who to say goodbye from.. those are the questions popping in Paul's mind. How unimportant he really is, is shown by the attitude of various institutions that he tries to call. The main idea I am left with is, may I never turn up in a situation like this. With only government with its great attitude to help me or to assist me with something. The administrative procedures that serve themselves are simply too much. Vividly shown in the piece, dramatically cast by Ryan Reynolds.

One of the masterpieces, made on a very static position. It is extremely hard to fill in the movie if you are limited to one position or one location (for instance, brilliant job at Phone Booth). Nevertheless, I keep wondering, what the government is all about. About citizen not, for sure.



My personal rating: 8,0 (a truly unique piece of work, showing us, how little and unimportant we are..)


Buried on IMDB

Buried official page