28 September 2010 (Movie Feature)

Words: Mark 'Lenny' Linehan

He may not have gone all Ron Burgundy on us and wailed, "I'm in a wooden cage of emotion!" but Ryan Reynolds has shaken off his romcom manbot image by getting buried in a coffin in Iraq.

Armed with nothing more than a mobile, some water and a zippo lighter he has the audience with nails bitten down for the full 90 minutes as they peek through latticed fingers to witness his fate. Presumably, if MacGyver were in the same predicament he would have fashioned a small explosive rocket device from his underpants and a paper clip and fired himself to freedom. The role is a brave move for a man who has been the King Jock in Van Wilder and the lead love interest in The Proposal. Here he has very little room to get the ladies pulses racing. The six-pack is replaced by caked blood, much dribbling, sweat and heavy breathing in possibly the most physically demanding shoot he will encounter.

He plays Paul Conroy, a contractor from the U.S. who is kidnapped and wakes up buried underground. We are to believe that he is nothing more than just a normal everyday Joe caught in circumstances beyond his control. The film then develops into a metaphor for US involvement in Iraq, as Paul is pushed from pillar to post by various contacts as he tries to phone his way to freedom.

The movie never veers from the box and director Rodrigo Cortes ensures that even watched on the biggest screen, one is forced to feel twitchy, disturbed, and claustrophobic. He employs several blank screens that enforce the horror of being buried alive with just a light for company, akin to Dutch thriller The Vanishing. I'm sure in developing this movie he would have been busy swatting over previous thrillers that, 'don't go anywhere' from the Hitchcock classics Rear Window and Rope to the sweat box Das Boot and the more recent Phone Booth.

So, entertainment.ie raided his library and found the best claustrophic flicks to get you itching to launch yourself out the window Henry Sellers style screaming, "I'm Freeeeeee" after viewing:

 
Das Boot
Not about getting fired but, as mentioned above, movie based on the exploits of a German WWII U-Boat:

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of the one set scene, with a number of movies utilising the intense atmosphere it created. They include Lifeboat, and Rope but his most famous has to be the great Rear Window:

Saw
The long running hugely successful horror franchise did as much for tool sales as it did for the importance of confining the action to one place. See how it works in Cube and Paranormal Activity.

12 Angry Men
One of my favourite movies and possibly one of the best to display the confinement of jurors, and how this imparts on decisions that could save or destroy lives. Being a stage adaptation, it is up there with Glengarry Glen Ross:

Phone Booth
Colin 'howya' Farrell runs up an enormous phone bill as demented revenger Kiefer Sutherland bemoans the introduction of mobile phones:

1408
John Cusack is subjected to the full horror of a hotel room. (And I don't mean strange stains, and pubic hair in the shower). Samuel L. Jackson co-stars, and features in his own confined movie Snakes on a Plane.

The Breakfast Club
College kids confined in detention. Classic 80s coming of age. All together now…Don't you…de de de de …forget about me!!

Agree/Disagree? Post some of your own.

Mark Linehan
Check out Mark AKA 'Lenny the Movie Man' on TodayFM. Every Thursday night on KC's show 10-12midnight.