Film Review: The Box (Spoilers)
Writer/director Richard Kelly’s second film since ‘Donnie Darko’ is seriously pretentious. Whilst the script raises intriguing questions about morality, the interconnectedness of the human race and to some extent religion, his film never quite manages to explore a single issue properly, certainly not in an engaging way. And that’s the chief flaw of ‘The Box’ – it sets up a fascinating premise and doesn’t provide a payoff – instead it rambles all over the place and leaves you completely cold. At least 2001 for all of its existential questioning had a heart, but this film has none. At no point do you ever care about stars James Marsden or Cameron Diaz, who both sleepwalk through this film, and considering their calibre it’s almost unforgivable. So for $1 million and no come-back would you choose to cause the death of a human being you don’t know? The answer is of course ‘no’, but of course if we stopped there we wouldn’t have much of a movie and the supernatural force ranged against them (the Martians? God?) wouldn’t have much to pontificate about. But I ‘m getting ahead of myself…
It’s the late 70′s and Cameron Diaz is married to NASA technician James Marsden, who is involved in the design of the cameras for the space agency’s mission to Mars. Their comfy life is thrown into disarray when spooky Frank Langella (who has half a face) delivers a box to them with a red button. Push the button and receive $1 million – it’ll mean the death of a fellow human being but you won’t know them and noone will ever find out. Diaz inexplicably allows him to enter the house twice, mystifyingly keeps the box after his initial visit, then even though they aren’t exactly living in financial hardship, pushes the button. And that’s after Marsden has discovered the box is completely empty. Then when they get their bloody money they decide they don’t want it, but it’s too late.
They find themselves confronted by supernatural forces which may or may not be connected to mankind’s first visit to another planet, but considering science is ranged against the supernatural it’s baffling why not a single NASA technician (for it is they who appear to be the principal targets) questions what happens to them. Why don’t they at least try to get protection from the police, when Diaz’s father is their town’s police captain? But noone behaves in a logical fashion, and it’s tiresome. The Godly 2001 beats when they eventually come are an interesting theme – is there a God out there testing the human race, and what if we are found wanting? But they can’t mask Kelly’s unsympathetic script and self-involved direction.
Kelly seems to want to say a) we’re so disconnected from cause and effect in the world that it’s a choice we’d all make (an appalling claim) but also b) we’re so interconnected the choice was never Diaz’s (nor the final choice Marsden’s) in the first place. I was just left waiting for a beginning to lead to a middle and an end, but ultimately it’s just a muddle. The leads struggle against their fate but have no control over it – maybe that’s what Kelly wants to leave us with, but I just didn’t care. It’s entertaining enough, but I left wondering what the point was other than nihilistic pointlessness.
5/10
