(From Tiff.net): One man, buried underground, with only his wits and two gadgets to save him. It’s a high-stakes thriller carried off with such technical brilliance and polish that it would make Alfred Hitchcock proud.
Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is a US civilian truck driver on a contract assignment in Iraq. An average family man from smalltown Michigan, Paul is just trying to earn enough money to keep food on the table back home. But when his convoy is attacked by Iraqi insurgents, all that fades to black as he’s knocked unconscious.
As he awakes in a dark, confined space, Paul is horrified to find that he’s been buried alive in a coffin. With no idea who put him there or why, he must race against time to figure out how to free himself from this nightmarish prison. He has a cigarette lighter to offer brief moments of illumination. He has a BlackBerry. Why his captors have left him with that isn’t clear until it rings. They let him know they are demanding five million dollars in ransom before nine o’clock that night or he will be left to die. But why him? As he struggles to understand the circumstances that landed him there, he must also try to find ways to satisfy or outwit his kidnappers before the deadline. With limited battery power, spotty signal reception underground and a dwindling air supply, Paul has ninety minutes to solve this riddle before becoming permanently buried.
Director Rodrigo Cortés sets a high bar for himself with Buried. If the challenge of keeping a story rushing along while confined to one space may seem impossible, Cortés meets it. With incredible cinematography by Eduard Grau (who also shot Tom Ford’s A Single Man) and masterful editing by Cortés himself, Buried nods to Hitchcock’s classic film, Rope, using the limitations it set itself as a bold challenge. Technically masterful and told with great verve, Buried invents new twists at every turn.
Screening times:
Tuesday, September 14 – 9:00pm – Ryerson Theatre
Wednesday, September 15 – 12:30pm – Varsity 8
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