The Box

The Box

By Jonathan Fisher, November 15th, 2009


The Box is a tough slog. This movie is completely nonsensical, and marks another downward turn for director Richard Kelly, whose first movie Donnie Darko combined a strong sense of style, time and place with a narrative that at least made partial sense, even if it bent the rules of phsyics somewhat. His follow-up, Southland Tales, was an ambitious but hopelessly muddled film with big ideas, but very poor execution. Patches of the movie made no sense at all, with characters drifting in and out with little to no context, and the terminally convoluted plot assumed a lot of knowledge on the part of the viewer, with very little exposition to make things easier for us.

Now comes The Box, which suffers from the same excessive indulgence and disrespect for narrative that plagued Southland Tales and even Kelly's director's cut of Donnie Darko. The premise is an intriguing one -- in 1960s American suburbia, a wooden box with an elaborate button atop it arrives at the doorstep of a young married couple, Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur (James Marsden). Shortly after, a facially disfigured, eloquent gentleman named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) visits the couple's home. He informs Norma that the button represents a tantalising quagmire. If the couple chooses to press the button, they will be given one million dollars -- a tempting prospect as the family is weighed down with debt, and Norma requires a costly operation to fix a bodily disfigurement. The cash comes with a condition, though. If they press it, somewhere in the world someone that they don't know will die.

Like an episode of the addictive "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits", The Box begins as a morality play, a parable about the good and bad sides of humanity. We have the capacity for altruism and selflessness, but there is an eternal battle of selfishness waged within us. If we'll be okay, does it matter if someone we don't know won't be?

Unfortunately, after an intriguing opening act, The Box falls apart. Badly. There's a stretch of about 30 minutes revolving around a bizarre sequence in a public library that just doesn't make sense. I tried with all my might to follow the revelations, twists and turns. Every step of the way, Kelly's choices as director worked against me. This is a film that has no sympathy for a hopelessly confused audience. It's a gradual slide, too. Intrigue gives way to mild confusion, which gives way to bafflement, and then ultimately to anger.

How did this movie make it to theatres? Didn't someone realise what a frustrating, incomprehensible piece of garbage they were making? Did no one think that this movie would be the end result, or were they all afraid to proclaim that the emperor was wearing no clothes?

When the final revelation was exposed, and the arbitrary reason for Arlington Steward's existence and actions laid bare, I didn't much care. The entire film is an excuse for what feels like a delusional director trying to reclaim the glory days of the one good idea he's brought into the movie industry. I still love Donnie Darko and I even feel that Richard Kelly could be one or two movies away from a return to form, but The Box isn't worth the celluloid it's printed on.