FILM CHALLENGE: 140) Buried

140) Buried

Director: Rodrigo Cortes

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: Paul is a U.S. contractor working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.

Paul Conroy wakes up to find himself trapped in a box underground; he has been buried alive with nothing but his mobile phone, a lighter and a pen. For the next 90 minutes, we don't leave this coffin for a second as the narrative focusses entirely on Paul's struggle to escape almost inevitable death.

The next in a long line of claustrophobic thrillers, Buried could easily fall into the same traps that the likes of Exam and The Disappearance Of Alice Creed did. It could easily wear down the appeal of its concept early on, it could fail to deliver any interesting narrative or character developments and it could easily become repetitive, monotonous and dull. But, somehow, Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes makes it work. He's miraculously able to transform such a simple idea of a man stuck in a box into the single most suspenseful, most nail-bitting and most gripping thrillers of the year.

Unlike the aforementioned movies, Buried doesn't give its cards away too early in the film and this keeps you interested throughout the entire 90 minutes of its running length. Like Paul, we are thrown right into this situation and are only, very slowly, allowed to piece together the events that brought him there. Moreover, even when you think you know the whole story around the hour mark, Buried still manages to throw in a number of unexpected twists and turns to thicken the plot as it reaches its finale.

Also, Paul isn't just a one-dimensional character neglected in favour of the interesting concept. Even as Buried reaches its final minutes, the audience are still uncovering every layer of the protagonist and being revealed details of his personal life. The same goes for the people he is in touch with over the phone; you never quite know anyone's motive or stance until all is revealed towards the finale.

But while it is impressive that the screenplay is so well written that it can maintain it's hold on you, the real thing that should be marvelled about in Buried is how big its scope is despite how small its confinements are. After all, it's not just a small-scale movie about escaping from a box; from the moment Paul is contacted by Iraqi criminals and told that he is a hostage, it begins to take on the form of a political thriller in the vain of Body Of Lies or In The Valley Of Elah. His desperate pleas to his employers, to the military and to the FBI only to be ignored, brushed aside or told that the United States government don't negotiate with terrorists add a new, unexpected layer to the movie that enforces the corrupt and flawed nature of the government's dealings in Iraq.

Despite the fact that the camera is confined to a small environment, the cinematography in Buried is also absolutely incredible. It's never afraid to make the viewer sit in total silent darkness for a few moments to put emphasis on the claustrophobia Paul must be experiencing. Nor is it afraid to light to screen in only a few certain areas with the light of his mobile phone or Zippo lighter. In this respect, Buried looks and feels like an authentic insight into what it must really feel like to be buried alive. However, the camerawork is also surprisingly great using dizzying motion in moments of panic or confusion and a spectacular pan near the beginning that would make even the strongest of viewers faint with claustrophobia.

A well written and fantastically directed low-budget thriller that manages to live up to the intriguing concept. Emotional, politically charged, darkly comic and unbearably tense - a scene in which a snake finds its way into the box was almost too much for me to take - Buried is a cinema experience that nobody should pass up.

4/5

By Daniel Sarath with 7 comments