Reynolds. Wrapped.

 

I know, but my first choice of "Reynolds. Surrounded by wood, stuck in a coffin, thrown in a hole, and buried alive with an all-powerful Zippo." sounded too cliched, so I went with the obvious lame-o pun instead.  Thank you, yes...it's what I do.

Stuck within the confines of 90 minutes (and I'm not counting the opening and end credits), Rodrigo Cortes' Buried is somewhat of a minor miracle.  There is one actor, one set, and one story: Ryan Reynolds is buried alive and the entire movie is him in a coffin trying to get out.  That's it. No other characters on-screen (although we do hear them through a cell phone), no flashbacks to how Reynolds ended up in the coffin, and no other sets.

While this sounds like a set-up for the latest SAW movie (It isn't?) No, and an actor of Reynolds' talent would not allow himself to get sucked into such a mess of a franchise. Buried turns out to actually be a nifty little thriller.

"I don't know why, but I foresee a certain superhero role in my future."

The suspense becomes unbearable here as Reynolds races against time to get a pizza delivered to his coffin, or else he'll be dug up and be subjected to watch a Lifetime movie marathon at gunpoint instead.  OK, so not really, but the latter sounds more torturous to me than anything that Jigsaw could think up.  I know I'd turn into George C. Scott from Hardcore if I had to watch anything on Lifetime. (AaaHH! Crystal Bernard! Delta Burke! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!!)

Reynolds is buried alive in a coffin with a cellphone and a magic Zippo lighter that was apparently left behind by one of the Superfriends at the offices of the Hall of Justice.  (Perhaps Zan and Jana took drags on doobies in-between saving the world and Gleek was a hallucination, I don't know), but I mean, OK, we have to suspend disbelief, but the lighter must have some sort of super power because as many times as he uses that thing, the oxygen would've been sucked out of that coffin faster than Kate Gosselin emptying Jon's bank account. (But as she's said, it's all for the kids, so it's all good.)

Really though, once you get past that, the movie really does make itself known as a true suspense-driven tale.  Why is this guy there? What is the motive? What can he do? This blogger can't really say much else without giving most of the major plot elements away, but I must call attention to the fantastic opening credit sequence that recalls the early work of frequent Hitchcock collaborator Saul Bass, who created title sequences for Psycho, Vertigo, Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder, Kubrick's Spartacus and Scorsese's Casino. 

Opening titles for Vertigo, ca. 1958



Buried's estimated budget is rumored to be $3 million, which seems like a lot when you just have one set, and I assume Reynolds' fee. (I guess he needed an indoor bowling alley or something), but director Rodrigo Cortes takes advantage of his camera and uses it to explore the confined spaces of the coffin and even uses aerial shots that work to deepen the sense of claustrophobia.  Victor Reyes' tense soundtrack recalls in some scenes the very essence of Hitchcock-era Bernard Herrmann. And Reynolds, ever the smart-ass, even manages to supply some comedy to reduce the tension in some major scenes.  We feel the cramped space, we hear the dirt from the outside seeping in, and we wonder: "Is he going to make it out?"

Watch and see, but let me tell you this: they should have at least given Reynolds some Robitussin, because his coffin's really bad...

...just like that joke.  (Hey, I started with one, why not bookend it?)

Buried, 2010
Grade: A -