Ryan Reynolds is so Underground

This week I received Buried from Netflix (I don’t think it’s Qwikster yet).  First, a brief rant:  If I put something on my DVD queue and it’s available on instant streaming, can we get a heads up?  Sorry about that, anyway, you probably all heard about Buried when it first came out as the movie that’s entirely Ryan Reynolds in a coffin.  Fortunately, for what they were working with conceptually, it was a surprisingly well done movie.  It was as creepy and claustrophobic as you’d expect, but also had some extremely depressing moments that were quite a shock when they happened in the narrative.

This movie is pretty frightening, not just because of the base fear of being buried alive, but also for all the political and social things it brings up over the course of the movie.  Ryan Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a contractor in Iraq, but not the Blackwater type contractor, he’s a truck driver from Michigan working for CRT in Iraq, just “trying to do right” by his family.  It’s quickly made clear that Conroy was promised a very different Iraq than he found himself working in, and that he doesn’t have much hope for his current predicament.  The only hope he does have is a Blackberry phone, but most of the calls he places don’t provide happy news.

The only other characters in the film are the people Conroy talks to on the phone, and there are a variety of different people throughout the film.  Conroy tries to get in contact with government agencies that can help, tries to get in touch with his family, and at times also has contact with the people that kidnapped him.  Most of these calls are depressing in one way or another, but a few do provide a little bit of happiness.  The most horrifying call though is with none other than Stephen Tobolowsky, who you may recognize from Glee or Heroes or a number of other bit parts from tons of different shows and movies.  All I can say is, if you recognize his voice, prepare to get really angry and really sad.

Buried is a very eerie movie and I feel bad that I can’t say too much more about it, but I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet.  It’s extremely well done, and fills the 90 minutes very well, but is not something you should watch if you’re looking to be cheered up.  It’s probably a realistic take how things are going in Iraq, but you really can’t be sure since the official position appears to be covering this type of situation up.  And I really hope CRT isn’t a real company, because this movie does not put them in a good light.

John Hackert is a columnist and would get a smartphone if their batteries weren’t crap.