Waking up in a confined wooden coffin, buried somewhere in the middle of Iraq. With a blackberry, a Zippo and a pencil. Do you think you find your ground again?
We stay under ground in the wooden box through out the entire movie, and the only person we could see is Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) a contracted truck driver working in Iraq. Somehow he is buried alive, and luckily he isn't buried deep, as he can still use his cell phone. Later we leant that he is intentionally being held captive.
They are not terrorists, they are just like Paul, the provider of the family, and somehow their jobs are taken away by foreign employ. It is clear what they want is money. Otherwise, they would not go down to this path, holding people hostage asking for ransom. We could only guess they had been mistreated and they wanted to be heard. That’s why they are asking Paul to make videos and making it public.
On the other side, Paul is asked to stay focus not to make any irrational moves like making the video. Trying every possible way to find help. At the end, he received a phone call by his contractor telling him his contract has been terminated due to some reason, through which the contractor will hold no responsibility of Paul’s situation and even if he is dead, the insurance company will not need to pay a dime for his lost. How irresponsible!
Given a cell phone, seems a wonderful idea of getting help. The truth is the endless call waitings, atrocious reception, and insane voice mails make it impossible to get through. Communication nowadays should bring convenience not complication.
We tell lies to comfort people. To avoid the inevitable - let them lose hope. People will sacrifice themselves in order to live. However, not every dream comes true with the sacrifice made. The only thing you could do is keeping your finger crossed.
It is really hard to make a good movie in such quality with this limited budget. Let alone only one actor is hire for the movie. The movie draws your attentions by music, lighting and the actor. You couldn’t rely on anything more but the thrilling plot and the cinematograph.
The intensity comes from idea of being jailed in a limited movement environment together with the darkness. The director Rodrigo Cortés is definitely trying to infect us with claustrophobia. And giving Ryan Reynolds a chance to prove he is worth more than a vase.
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