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Buried

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Released:24th September 2010

Director: Rodrigo Cortes

Stars: Ryan Reynolds

Certificate: 15

Reviewer: Luke Walkley

Directed by Rodrigo Cortes and made by an almost entirely Spanish team, Buried follows truck driver Paul Conroy (Reynolds) who, after an ambush on his convoy whilst working Iraq, finds himself trapped in what appears to be a coffin, with nothing but his lighter and mobile phone on his pockets.

At first glance, Buried poses the question: ‘How can you make a movie about a man in a box?’ The usual answers spring to mind, numerous flashbacks that lead up to Paul’s extremely unfortunate situation…jumping from captive to captors to rescuers. Well if you think that you are completely mistaken and that is in no way a bad thing.

From the onset the film is intense, scenes that leave you in complete darkness with nothing but rustling and the sounds of Pauls panicking. Reynolds has done fantastically well, in drawing you to his character, learning the back story from telephone calls to family and those trying to save him. There is only a certain amount of acting you can do in a small box, but Reynolds manages brilliantly.

The film tackles some controversial issues too, which more than likely explains the lack of American backers for this film. Taking a dark look at the policies of companies working in war-torn areas, as well as a few underhand swipes at the government and intelligence agencies in America.

It has hard to place Buried in a genre. Its roots are that of a mystery thriller, but with no visible suspects for the audience to draw up their conclusions. There are some unnecessary scenes, one involving a snake seems surplus to the film, however, a scene such as this does add the ‘horror’ factor to the film, purposely playing on viewers fears.

As for cinematography, it is stunningly well created. Two light sources and four corners don’t allow an awful lot of room for manoeuvre but the end result looks brilliant, pitch blackness broken up with the glow of a mobile phone screen creating a completely unique atmosphere, rarely seen or felt before. As the time slowly runs out, it is hard to believe how connected to Paul you become, genuinely hoping for him to get to safety.

With an ending, which without actually giving anything away, is heart wrenching to say the least. A truly moving, original and un-missable piece of cinema. Buried has certainly unearthed a new take on film-making.

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