"The Box" review by Ben Kenber

I feel really bad for writer/director Richard Kelly. All three films he has made thus far have been treated with contempt and dismissed before they even made it to the big screen. Granted, “Donnie Darko” (which has since become one of my all time favorite movies) has achieved a well deserved cult following, but it bombed upon its original release. Having come out just after the events of September 11^th, 2001, no one wanted to see an airplane in any kind of trouble (see the movie, you’ll understand). Then there was “Southland Tales” which was greeted with a tremendous chorus of boos upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But while movie suffered from being overly ambitious, you still had to admire Kelly’s ambition to a certain extent. Still, “Southland Tales” belly flopped when finally released in only a handful of theaters.

Now we have his latest movie, “The Box.” This one has immediately become well known for getting the rare Cinemascore of F from filmgoers. C’mon! You cannot make me believe that people as a whole think that badly of it! I’m not sure how Cinemascore works exactly, but I imagine there are other factors at work there other than the film being good or bad. I wonder how Kelly deals with all this negativity constantly being thrown in his direction.

That being said, “The Box” is not the great movie that “Donnie Darko” is, but it is still a fascinating one that held my attention throughout its running time. The movie is based upon a short story by Richard Matheson called “Button, Button” which itself was adapted into an episode of the 80’s incarnation of “The Twilight Zone.” Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star as a married couple living in Connecticut back in the 1970’s. Cameron plays Norma Lewis, a teacher of literature at a local school where we see her discussing Jean Paul Sartre’s “No Exit,” a play whose themes are echoed throughout. James’ character of Arthur Lewis works for NASA and is confident that he is about to be selected for astronaut training. At the same time, Arthur is also working on a special molding for his wife’s foot which got horribly disfigured when she was very young. They appear to be your normal happy couple with a son, and the dad drives an incredibly cool corvette you could only wish you owned.

But then the roof caves in for the both of them (this always seems to happen with the nicest of people in the movies). Norma discovers the school she works at will be cutting back on tuition which will affect her financially, and Arthur finally gets the letter from NASA confirming that he failed his psych test, and as a result will never be able to become an astronaut. One crushing blow after another is the last thing this family needs as they are both already living way beyond their means. Doesn’t sound all that different from a lot of families I see on television today who have been evicted from their homes.

During this troubling time, they find a package that was left at their doorstep. Who left it there, they do not know. In the package is a brown box with no real special features to it other than a red button that is locked in a little glass dome on the top. Both Norma and Arthur examine the inside of it and find no real working parts, nothing to indicate if anyone has pushed the button or not. The next day, Norma is met by a kindly man named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) whose kind demeanor alleviates the shock upon seeing that his face has a hideous scar on the side. Arlington tells Norma that if she or her husband presses the button, two things will happen; first, someone they do not know will die, and they will not know how. Second, they will receive a briefcase filled with $1,000,000 in cash. He gives the two of them 24 hours to decide whether or not to push the red button. Either way, he says he will return to collect the box at which point it will be reprogrammed and given to someone else.

The premise of “The Box” immediately reminded me of Adrian Lyne’s “Indecent Proposal.” That film came out in the 90’s and starred Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, and Robert Redford. In that one, Redford’s character offers the married couple of Woody and Demi a million dollars if he can spend a night alone with Demi. We all know what decision they made (there would be no movie otherwise), and the rest of the movie deals with the aftermath of their collective choice. Fear and jealousy threatens to tear them apart throughout.

With the added elements of the supernatural and of Marsden’s character working on a special machine that will be landed on Mars, “The Box” could have been called “Indecent Proposal of the 3^rd Kind.”

Now that Kelly has made three feature length movies, I can see similar themes running through his work. Kelly seems particularly interested in supernatural forces at work which are never easily explained, and he even has one of the characters say at one point:

“I love a good mystery.”

In addition to the supernatural, he deals with end of the world scenarios, and of human sacrifices that seemingly need to be made for the good of others. None of the protagonists in his films ever get off easy. In fact, they are the ones who seem to suffer the worst of everyone. And of course, there are always the morality issues that tear away at the characters. In “The Box,” it is whether or not we should push the button. Does it make it easier to push it if the person who dies is someone they do not know? What if that unknown person to them is a murderer or a rapist? Or are all these questions simple excuses to take advantage of a big payday that will take care of their financial worries? We’re all looking for some great excuse to solve our problems quickly rather than slowly. But in the end, we reap what we sow, and we can never be fully prepared for the consequences we know that we will eventually face.

Arlington is asked why he brings a box to peoples’ houses. He basically says our lives revolve around boxes of all kinds. We live in a house that is essentially a box, we go to our jobs and sit in our cubicles which is essentially a box (a suffocating one at that), and when we die we are buried in a box. To say that the box is in many ways symbolic to our lives would be an understatement. The big question is if we can think outside of the box, and there may be a certain point in our lives where we stop doing that out of futility or a cynical nature.

Cameron Diaz is really a better actress than people tend to give her credit for. The last couple of years have had her stuck doing generic comedies like “What Happens In Vegas” among others. Cameron shot her way into our lives opposite Jim Carrey in “The Mask,” and she has taken on many different roles since then. I am in agreement with those who say she should have gotten a nomination for “There’s Something About Mary.” Don’t tell me she was just playing herself!

In “The Box,” Diaz gives an understated performance that does not have her overacting or going over the top. She slips into the role with relative ease and is very believable as a regular housewife with a child. She looks beautiful in certain scenes while maintaining a demeanor that feels very down to earth. The thing I have always liked about Cameron Diaz is that she is not afraid to de-glam herself for certain roles like the one she played in “Being John Malkovich.” Had “The Box” received a better reception upon its initial release, I would like to believe that she would have gotten more respect for her performance here.

James Marsden is good here as the husband Arthur, but he does come across as a little stiff at times. Still, he gives us a father who is not your simple one-dimensional dad who cares more about work than his own family. The dynamic he shares Cameron’s character feels genuine, and his character is just as complex. His very last moments in “The Box” are especially well played as he is forced to make a choice where the odds have him suffering eternal damnation.

But the performance that really makes “The Box” work is given by Frank Langella. If the wrong actor was cast in this role, it could have seriously messed up the whole movie, and that’s regardless of how the other actors compare. The character could have been completely laughable if played too broadly, and the plot would have been rendered as utter rubbish. But Director Kelly made a brilliant choice in casting Langella as the strange man who comes seemingly out of nowhere. From “Dave” to “Frost/Nixon,” Langella has always had a dramatically foreboding presence about him, and serves this movie perfectly. His character is not evil and comes across as a polite gentleman no matter how devious you think he becomes.

Richard Kelly takes his time with “The Box” and doesn’t start with the payoff like every other film made today. He builds up to it from the get go, and the movie keeps you intrigued in that it does not give away all its secrets by the end. This is one of those movies where watching it once is not enough as there is still a lot to take in. “The Box” is of course not without its flaws, it does drag at times to where it could have used some tightening and additional editing. Even “Southland Tales” didn’t feel quite as long as this one does. Still, “The Box” is still a good movie that hopefully will find its audience on cable and DVD like all his other movies.

But c’mon! Let’s show Richard Kelly some more respect. He’s doing something different and interesting. Stop giving him crap until you actually see his movies!

Hang in there Richard!

*** out of ****