Movie Review: Buried

Buried is a very unique movie that spends the entirety of its length portraying the struggles of a man trapped inside a coffin.  It uses very sparse elements to create a tense atmosphere.  Much of the time he makes great use of a cell phone to carry the dialogue of the movie.  However, there are other methods of lighting in particular that the protagonist Paul Conroy uses to help alleviate his situation.  He believes he was put there while working for a company driving a truck, while his truck was attacked by not only kids with rocks, but also eventually terrorists.

Paul manages to phone various different parties during his entombment in the movie.  Firstly, he speaks to one of the terrorists associated with helping him escape provided he gives him a ransom.  He has a set amount of time to make the demands and eventually has to commit a violent act, which I won’t spoil, to stop him from being buried.  There’s also another person Paul talks to that is supposed to help dig him out of the ground before he dies.  Add in other buried people to the situation along with Paul’s wife and there is a decent amount of interaction to be found in his desolate situation.

The manners that he manages to keep a view of his situation are with a lighter, initially, and later a glowing light tube.  The area around him is still relatively dark and constricted, adding to the claustrophobic nature of his situation.  He notices a creature in his coffin and eventually the presence of sand leaking into his coffin.  I won’t spoil the manners that Paul uses to overcome deadly predicament, but will say that portions of the beginning of the movie tie in with what happens later.  The movie has a great degree of continuity throughout.  The rather minimalistic nature of the movie prevents it from having a flashy style, but that is more than made up for with a suspenseful atmosphere.

Buried was a very compelling and tense look at a seemingly futile situation of a man buried in a coffin.  Despite the lack of set pieces in the movie, I was kept riveted throughout the majority of its length.  The movie isn’t particularly long either, so it manages to display everything it needs to in a reasonably short time frame.  It is a very solid movie for a viewer looking for thrills and a bleak atmosphere over a huge amount of special effects.