Fatal Turn

You've undoubtedly heard the phrase "jump the shark" used to describe the episode after which a television series begins a steady decline from greatness. I've seen a few bitter Indiana Jones fans try to coin a similar phrase for the moment at which a long-running movie franchise falls from grace: "nuke the fridge." But what about the moment when a single movie -- not part of a series -- that was proceeding well enough sabotages its own progress and slips into lunacy? After seeing Buried, I'd posit that phrase could be "burn the snake."

Buried is an unabashed gimmick of a film. It takes place entirely inside a coffin. A supply driver in Iraq, a man who is not actually in the military, awakens in pitch blackness, remembering an ambush in which he was knocked out. He now finds he's been buried alive in a coffin with only a few items, including a cell phone, and must fight off panic as he seeks an escape.

"Buried alive" is a gimmick that's been seen before in a variety of places. Quentin Tarantino has done it twice -- once as a plot point in Kill Bill, and at greater length in the episode of CSI he wrote and directed. We've seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer awaken in this fashion. What sets this film apart from those other stories is that the entirety of the 90-minute film takes place inside that coffin. We never cut to the world outside, only hear the voices of other characters coming through on the cell phone.

So naturally, to make this concept have any chance of working, you need a truly strong actor in that role. Writer-director Rodrigo Cortés got one in Ryan Reynolds. Sure, Reynolds' film choices haven't always been the best, and his sex symbol status has threatened to compromise his reputation as an actor... but the talent is still there. He's been the best thing in a number of average-at-best movies, and he's pretty phenomenal here. This is an almost impossible part on the page, with no "valleys" to balance the amped "peak" of the circumstances, and no other actor on screen with whom to interact or to share focus. Ryan Reynolds is exceptional.

But the part really is impossible to play on the page, because the character starts behaving stupidly around the halfway point of the film. Now I will grant you that to whatever degree I might imagine myself in that dark, claustrophobic situation, I most assuredly would be non-functioning. I wouldn't be in my right mind at all. But the character holds it together for long enough that you come to expect better from him. And I'd like to think I wouldn't be this stupid.

The moment comes when the character discovers a snake (maybe poisonous? it's unclear) crawling inside his clothes, that somehow slipped into the coffin at some point. The snake slithers out his pant leg and coils up at his feet. The man is wearing heavy boots. It's risky, but one has to do something, right? Time to start stomping?

Nope. Our hero decides to splash alcohol on the snake from his small flask, then switch on his lighter to burn the snake. He tries this even though the risk of an out of control fire is obvious, and even though the movie has already established that he knows that even just the tiny flame of the lighter is consuming his precious and limited oxygen.

It's all downhill from there. He wastes time on a phone call there's no logical reason for him to continue. When a possible opportunity for a desperate escape attempt presents itself, he ignores it. He "burned the snake," and the movie is relentlessly stupid from that point on.

But there were even other subtle flaws before that point. At times, the movie does an excellent job of making you feel the tight, enclosed space of the coffin. But at two points in the movie, the camera does a long, slow pullback into an impossible void, showing our hero from a great distance. In any other movie, this technique would effectively convey a sense of isolation and hopelessness for the character. In this movie, it totally lets the audience off the hook. For just a moment, the space defined on screen is no longer a box 7 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet, and all the built-up tension is let out and has to start building again.

So while Ryan Reynolds has never been better, and gives an amazing performance, I ultimately cannot recommend the unfortunate film its in service of. Buried comes out in my mind at a below-average (and disappointing) C-.

A good gimmick, but it burned the snake.