thomas4cinema

The concept of being buried in a box is nothing I would look forward to experience at some point in my life. It is kind of hard to concentrate on the merits of a movie when the only thing that is on camera for the whole duration is the thing that you really loathe. But anyway, it’s only a movie, right, only a movie… no problem, he is an actor, he could get out any time. Unless something goes wrong with the equipment on set, and then he might be stuck. Or they forget him in the box after shooting ends.

Setting a whole film inside the box in which a man is held captive is a bold experiment. It provides challenges aplenty in terms of camera, light, directing, acting. And story, which is where the problems come in: after about 15 minutes I was convinced that this will not be a very thrilling ride, because there is only so much you can do within the limits of this setting. You have evolving panic and despair, you have communication efforts. That’s about it. They top it with a little bit of, let’s call it natural disaster that does not change the living conditions for the better. But all in all this situation is rather static. This is terrible enough for the hostage, but also not pleasant for the viewer. If you have seen 100 movies in your life, you get some thrill off the question whether he will get out of that box. If you have seen 1000, you will not. The last 10 minutes in particular are lame, and neither ending could have saved it from being too predictable (quite a feat, actually). That is not to say that I would not have enjoyed watching it. Ryan “Sexiest Man of the Planet” Reynolds (whom I have never seen before, I think) is a good guy to watch being angry and sad and frustrated and in mortal peril. And the film is short, so you get a good hour of solid entertainment out of some 85 minutes of movie. Not bad.
Could have been better had they done away with rather gratuitous “bad guy” plot lines like the HR guy of the contracting company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buried_%28film%29