Unreal Movie Review: The Box

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I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from The Box, the new film by Richard Kelly and based on the short story “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson.  While I consider Kelly’s first movie, Donnie Darko, a very good, original, and intense movie, his sophomore effort, Southland Tales, was a train wreck of epic proportions.  Still, Southland Tales, despite all its flaws, was unique and ambitious, and I got the impression that Kelly really cares about his material and, unlike many filmmakers, cares more about telling a compelling story as opposed to, say, making some money.  Keep reading for the full review.  Spoilers ahead.

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In The Box, Richard Kelly takes a fairly simple premise and turns it into a complex story involving aliens, mind control, and glimpses of the afterlife.  Suffice to say, there’s no topic too ambitious for Kelly to tackle, but perhaps many of Kelly’s stories would be better suited for science fiction magazines instead of feature films.  The Box begins with the text from a classified government memo on the screen, informing the audience that a man named Arlington Steward has been resuscitated, has recovered from burn wounds, and is distributing units relating to something called the Mars Project.  We soon learn that our story takes place in 1976, and on this particular morning, Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) are awakened by the ringing of their doorbell.  When Norma opens the door, she discovers a plain-looking box sitting in front of their home.  Norma brings it inside, and after she and Arthur open the box, they find a device with simple red button affixed to its top.

Later that day, Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) arrives at the Lewis’ home while Arthur is at work for NASA.  With horrible burns on the side of his face, Steward tells Norma that if she pushes the button she will receive one million dollars, but someone she does not know will die.  She has 24 hours to make her decision and cannot discuss it with anyone except for her husband.  Arthur’s application to become an astronaut was rejected that day at work, and that coupled with Norma’s foot deformity that prevents her from walking normally helps the couple decide to press the button.  And of course they press the button; if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be a movie.

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So what happens when the button is pushed?  Well, it becomes clear pretty early on that Steward isn’t a human, but rather a “vessel” under the control of higher powers, most likely Martian, but certainly alien.  Someone that the Lewises don’t know does indeed die, and it’s a woman shot point blank in the chest by her husband (also a NASA employee).  Interestingly, there are no signs of struggle on the part of the woman.  After the button is pressed, The Box becomes quite discombobulated and bizarre, and the film is one with Richard Kelly’s fingerprints all over it.  And this is where Richard Kelly, in spite of – or perhaps because of – his reach fails as a filmmaker.  It seems as though everyone has nose bleeds, an indication that they’re under mind control, and the absolutely insane amount of people “working” for the higher powers is absurd.  Even though they’ve been warned not to investigate Steward and his device, the Lewises go to great lengths to find out what’s behind the curtain.  Everything they discover is meant to be spooky and intense, but unfortunately, it comes off as silly.

What Arthur Lewis finds is a gigantic operation designed to “test” the human race.  Should the humans put their personal desires above altruism (e.g., pressing the button for money), they will have failed the test and their extinction will be expedited by Steward and the higher powers.  It’s an interesting stretch from the original premise, but it’s a bit too much and borders on ridiculous.  At one point, Arthur is given the chance to choose between three gateways, each one looking a bit like the time-travel “tentacles” from Donnie Darko.  He chooses correctly – thanks to a mind-controlled waiter flashing him a peace sign at a party – and is given a glimpse of the afterlife (confirmed by Stweard).  A final – and somewhat confusing – twist at the end of the movie places the Lewises in yet another situation in which they must make a difficult choice, and the unintended effect is that the higher powers, at this point, are just being mean.  It helps relate back to the woman who was shot by her husband (it appears as though the Lewises will suffer the same fate), but it’s not really integral to the events in the film.

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Like Southland Tales, The Box has a lot of fresh, original ideas, and Kelly should be applauded for trying to bring these ideas to the big screen.  Unfortunately, though, and also like Southland Tales, The Box plays like a patchwork mess with flashes of brilliance but overall saturated with nonsense.  After three films, I think it’s safe to say that Richard Kelly got lucky with Donnie Darko and has a long way to go before becoming a good filmmaker.  There may be a lot of nuance to The Box, but I wouldn’t want to sit through it again to find out.

2 out of 5 stars

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5 Comments

  1. The original story focused entirely on the conflict between the wife (who wanted to press the button) and the husband (who refused on account of someone having to die). Although the quality of the writing itself is debatable, it set the scene for a rather insightful moral dilemma, with both characters arguing their sides very strongly.

    I’m glad the movie didn’t bother with any of that dumb thinking stuff and replaced it all with aliens.

  2. @ LAO

    Oh no, the moral dilemma was there, as the aliens were presenting it to humans as part of a test. That said, any discussions of whether to do it or not were superficial, with much of the focus instead on nosebleeds.

  3. I think if i was given the same choice while my wife was at work it probably would have lasted up until he says “someone you don’t know will die”. Then i’d hit the button as fast as i could a take the money. Theres way too many people on earth to begin with and if i didn’t know it was a test for mankind i wouldn’t care if someone i didnt know died because it happens like every 7 secs or something anyways. In the time it took me to think about pressing the button more than 1 person would have died anyways.

  4. @ WhatItIs

    And then you’d be next, because Steward would then give the box to someone who didn’t know you, and if he or she pressed it, you’d be the next to die.

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