The Box is more complex than its name would suggest, but only slightly. The movie leaves much to be desired with its terrible yet completely puzzling happenings.
This film pivots around a strange, facially disfigured man named Arlington Seward who arrives at Norma and Arthur Lewis’s house with a box.
The box has a button; the button, if pressed, will result in the Lewis’ receiving 1 million dollars, but also in the death of someone they don’t know.
Only they can make the choice. Oh, what a moral dilemma it becomes.
The film is based on Richard Matheson’s 1970 story of the same name, which is short and to the point.
Humans are greedy and amoral in the face of money and apparently don’t know their own spouses. Readers can clearly understand the point of the story.
Audience members of The Box, however, won’t be so lucky.
The short story gave the film its name, its curious box and its curious man, but that’s about it.
Director Richard Kelly, who is known for his cult success
Donnie Darko, directs The Box in all its creepy and confusing wiles.
Donnie Darko is puzzling and terrible in its own right, but in a good way.
Kelly brings the same weird touch to this film, too.
Going in, I had extremely high expectations for this movie. Not only had I read the short story and was excited to see how Kelly had expanded it into a full feature-length film, but I’m also a big fan of Kelly’s work (i.e. Donnie Darko).
The Box also has a star-studded cast with Cameron Diaz (Shrek, Charlie’s Angels), James Marsden (X-Men, The Notebook) and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon).
This film seemed destined for greatness, but alas it was not meant to be.
Once the film progressed past its opening sequences and the couple had received their box and decided whether or not to press the button, the film dropped into an abyss of confusion and wonderment never to surface and redeem itself again.
Random events seem to occur to people while in the presence of the couple such as getting coincidental nosebleeds while in the act of doing or saying something strange.
There’s a library full of zombie people only referred to as “employees,” while Seward admits he is a vessel and he is only doing a job given to him by his “employer”.
If at this point you are confused then you’re right on track with the movie.
Whether or not the film displays a true test of moral strength and character in humans, I can’t see how most audience members will decipher this from the hodgepodge mess of the film.
They will be too sidetracked by the transporting water they feel like they’ve seen before and it turns out they have, in Donnie Darko.
For anyone who has not seen this movie, don’t.
You won’t feel like you were brutally robbed of twenty bucks and two hours of your time.
Kelly disappoints with his interpretation of The Box therefore I am disappointed.
Shame on Richard Kelly for this bad, confusing movie and his lack of originality.