Thriller is the most flexible genre.  It's practically now just a suffix to other categories:  Action thriller, political thriller, psychological thriller, etc.  “Buried” is the only movie I’ve ever seen that I would consider to be a plain thriller.  Its execution is heart-pounding, and it is pure enough to not rely on any other genre conventions.

“Buried” has a very simple premise.  U.S. Military truck driver, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up in a coffin 6 ft. underground after an attack on his convoy by an Iraqi terrorist group.  All he has in his possession on awakening is a lighter and an Arabic cellphone.  The rest of the movie is about him trying to escape from the box.

The closest thing I could compare “Buried” to is “127 Hours” if it were a simulation of the protagonist’s dire situation.  What I mean by that is that the entire movie is in real time and never leaves the main character.  I’m not kidding, the plot never leaves the coffin; it’s literally Ryan Reynolds in a box for an hour and a half.  If you think this sounds gimmicky, I assure you it’s done for the good of the movie.  Watching this, I began to feel claustrophobia sinking into my brain.  I also think it’s worth noting that the first 2 minutes of the movie are in complete darkness, and the first 9 minutes has almost no actual dialogue, besides the desperate shouts for help and screaming and crying of fear and frustration.

Ryan Reynolds was essentially half of this movie.  If I didn’t hear about how the director (Rodrigo Cortés) used 7 coffins to film, I would have honestly believed Reynolds was actually in the same situation as his character.  He is also the only character you see in the flesh.  Any other person is either heard or seen on a video recording on his phone.

The music bothered me a little at first.  It was very sweeping and orchestrated, which clashed with the very realistic tone of the film.  As I watched, I started to enjoy it more and more.  It harkened back to the days of Hitchcockian films, where the music was made to build more tension than atmosphere.

As a quick comment, I really enjoyed the different uses of light in the coffin.  It kept the movie from looking the same in every shot.  My favorite had to be the cellphone, because I found a little irony in how the dimmest light is arguably his most valuable resource.

“Buried” is a small scale, but very effective and clever thriller.  If you are claustrophobic then you’ll either hate this movie, or be affected by it even more.