Alfred Hitchcock famously set an entire film in a lifeboat, but he had Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix to bail him out. Ryan Reynolds sweats a lot and moans manfully as Paul Conroy, a US contractor buried alive in a crate by Iraqi insurgents in this one-trick thriller from first-time director Rodrigo Cortés, but he really isn't someone you want spend a lot of time with in a confined space. Equipped only with a Zippo lighter and a cell phone, Paul makes desperate calls to people ranging from his Halliburton-like employer's personnel director to his dementia-stricken mother. But he has no luck getting anyone to deal with the kidnappers, who ring him up from time to time and growl things like "Five millions!" and "Show blood or they show blood!" What starts out as a claustrophobic and suspenseful allegory about the folly of the Iraq War settles into a series of pseudo-ironic twists and a conclusion that will leave you gasping for air.
