Buried (2010)

What would you do if you woke up in a pine box buried in the ground? That's the situation presented in Buried; a contractor working overseas in Iraq wakes to find himself buried, with only a flashlight, a lighter, a cell phone and a few other items to help get himself unburied.

Since the entire film takes place within a six by two foot box, you'd think that it would be difficult to keep the audience's attention -- but honestly, Ryan Reynolds does a bang up job of riveting your eyes to the screen. You can really feel the frustration as he does whatever he can to make his limited battery life count. Government numbers, his wife's number, his company's phone number all come to his memory's forefront, and each gives up a different consequence, rounding out a short but sweet story that has a very shocking ending.

It starts off simple enough -- Reynolds' character is a contract truck driver working in Iraq, during the recent "conflict". He's not a solider, and neither he nor any of his coworkers have any sort of protection, defensive or offensive, against insurgents. So when their truck gets hit, there's nothing they can do. Slowly the story is pieced together; not just a story of one many trying to get himself out of an impossible situation, but also of how a larger entity, such as a government or country, treats a singular person. After all, what's one person when their life is stacked against several thousands, nay, millions?

It's really amazing how absolutely frustrating -- and honestly, thats the word to describe this film, at least when you put yourself in the character's point of view -- it is to watch this character make phone calls and how easily people write him off. At one instance, one woman even tells him to "not be so rude." Is this something that a lot of people prank phone call about? HELP I'M BURIED IN A BOX IN THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE AND I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH OXYGEN- Sorry, sir, please hold. He is continuously shuffled from person to person, and in the end there's really only one man who gives a shit.

The best part of it, I think, was how one caller interweaves the reassuring story of how he found one man to whom this similar situation had happened. He was kidnapped but rescued, and was back home safe and sound with his family. It's pretty amazing on what you can do with such a small scope and a very talented actor. The film really doesn't waste any of its 95 minutes, moving constantly from one obstacle to the next as time is ticking for the man in the box.