I must admit I went into this film very skeptical and also not knowing much more outside the premise.  But after watching it, I was floored. Great concept. Great execution. And if you would have told me that I was going to watch both this and the new Wall Street in the same day and that the movie about the guy in the box offered the better critique of modern society, I would have been incredibly skeptical.

From the ads:

“Paul Conroy has a lighter, a cell phone, 90 minutes of oxygen, and very few options.”

Bam.  That’s all you need to know about this movie.  It’s a dude stuck in a box for 90 minutes.

But not just any dude.  Ryan Reynolds. The man who would be Green Lantern. Former star of Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place. Van Wilder. Hannibal King. Wade Wilson. There are many reasons to love him—especially his ability to make otherwise pedestrian RomComs like The Proposal and Definitely Maybe passable.

But do we really want to see him stuck in a box for 95 minutes?

Yes, you really do.

Reynolds has an everyman charm that makes this easily relatable and we, as an audience, are taken on his emotional journey.

This film reminds me of another recent flick, Phone Booth, about which I was similarly skeptical: can you really make a taut thriller about someone stuck in a phone booth?  Yeah, they did. It’s not the second coming or anything, but it was entertaining and good.

But in Phone Booth you at least had other people outside the booth for Colin Ferrell to interact with. Anybody else going to show up in this movie?

For the most part, no.  This is all Ryan Reynolds.  And in my opinion that’s great.  And the fact that he is so isolated and only able to interact with people on the phone brings about the movie’s subtext.

He uses the cell phone to do exactly what you think- he tries to call anyone he can. And in doing so is put through the wringer by the vagaries of our phone systems. Problems with 411 systems, corporate bureaucracy, government bureaucracy, not being able to get a hold of people when you need to, and, above all else, people telling him to calm down. This provides some needed tension-breaking and some of the humor as we know exactly why he should not be calm.  And in a couple of cases, he tells people where to stick it. And it’s intensely satisfying.

And then there’s the technical aspects of this movie.  Anyone who has ever tried to film in small spaces knows how hard it is.  Obviously, Ryan Reynolds wasn’t in a box while being filmed—but it sure looked like it.  The filmmaking served to help make us feel as claustrophobic as possible.

In terms of niche fears, people scared of heights shold not see Vertical Limit, people scared of snakes Anaconda or Snakes on a Plane, spiders Arachnophobia, etc—now I know I’ve just named a lot of mediocre to terrible movies, and that does this film disservice. But in that same way that those films will scare the bejeezus about their subject matter, this may be the most claustrophobic movie ever. Anyone scared of tight spaces may want to skip this.  Or not, if you’re into indulging your fears.

Which leads me to wonder why Fantastic Fest, in their premiere tonight, had people enter a contest to watch the movie while buried in a box underground.  That sounds crazy to me, but it’s truly fascinating and really indicative of the craziness that is Fantastic Fest.

And now, some spoilers—I can’t discuss this movie without spoiling some very major points, so read no further if you don’t want them.  You’ve been warned!

Returning to the theme of social commentary, nearing the end of the film, Paul Conroy speaks to the head of the HR department at the military contracting firm he drives trucks for. The HR exec, brilliantly played by veteran character actor Steven Tobolowsky (Glee, Heroes), normally typecast as a creep or a dick, is the epitome of creepy dickishness and  everything that is wrong with America today.  Hiding behind law, and regulation, he invents an excuse to strip Conroy of his benefits as an employee, including life insurance for his family.  This immediately brings to mind the horrors of Halliburton/KBR for their employee contract which disallows employees to sue them for things like, oh, being gang raped.

So, how’s it end, spoiler-boy?

Bad. He doesn’t get out. After a short hallucination that he gets rescued.  And being told over the phone the soldiers are there and they’re digging him out… only to find the wrong guy stuck in a box.  It’s several emotional bitch slaps right to the face, as near the end you’re right there with Paul, certain he’s just not going to get out, and making peace with his loved ones.  And then to have that last final, fatal, glimmer of hope.  It really sucks.

Final word:

I don’t want to overhype this movie.  It’s very, very good, but only as good as a guy stuck in a box movie can be. It delivers on its premise, but if you’re looking for the reinvention of horror and thrillers, you’d best keep waiting.  Claustrophobes beware.  But still, possibly the most truly frightening movie because this is all completely possible, which makes it even more bleak.

3 ¼ stars