'The Box' Movie Review

Not since the climax of Seven has a box held as much mystery as the titular namesake in The Box, an ambitious adaptation of the 1970 short story "Button, Button" from sci fi legend Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) that goes way beyond what the author originally penned to delve into director Richard Kelly's (Donnie Darko) warped metaphysical views of life, death, love and all things in between.

Early one December morning in 1976, a package is left on the doorstep of an upper-middle class Richmond, Virginia family. The Lewises take it inside and discover that it contains a simple wooden box with a large red button encased in a locked glass dome. A note states that a Mr. Arlington Steward will be visiting them at 5:00 that evening.

When Steward (Frank Langella) arrives, only mother Norma (Cameron Diaz) is home. His disfigured face startles her, but her attention soon turns to his seemingly outrageous offer: if she and her husband decide to push the button, they will receive $1 million in cash, but someone in the world whom they don't know will die. He adds three more stipulations: he can't reveal who his employers are, they can't tell anyone about the deal and they have 24 hours to decide whether or not to push the button. Steward then hands her the key to the box and leaves.

When Norma's husband Arthur (James Marsden) comes home, he's skeptical of the offer, and he unscrews the bottom of the box to reveal no wires or any way for Steward to tell if the button had been pushed. However, the more the couple considers the deal, the more seriously they contemplate the repercussions. What if the person who dies is a death row inmate? What if it's a newborn baby? Arthur shies away from the device, but before he knows it, Norma, wracked with concern over the family's money problems, pushes the button.

Steward returns to bring the Lewises a briefcase containing $1 million and to retrieve the box. Nervous about the implications of their action, Norma and Arthur begin to investigate Steward and discover that he has ties to the federal government and to a NASA project on which Arthur had worked. Even more strangely, he seems to exert an almost supernatural control over an army of minions who watch the couple's every move. As they delve deeper, they uncover a plot that goes beyond any reality they ever imagined, one that endangers not only them and their son but also everyone around them.

Those who've seen the quirky sci fi tale Donnie Darko shouldn't be surprised that there's a lot in The Box that's left open to interpretation. Writer/director Kelly greatly expands the original short story, which accounts for only about 20 minutes of the nearly two-hour film, to include characteristically mind-bending elements that touch upon the metaphysical: the supernatural, the extraterrestrial, the ecclesiastical. Although the script diminishes the impact of the original tale's twist ending, it manages to sustain a palpable level of tension and a delicious, ever-increasing paranoia as Steward's army of emotionless drones becomes increasingly invasive and imposing -- not unlike Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

However, by the end, Kelly has built up so much anticipation that the final vague outcome fails to satisfy. The lack of certainty actually isn't as frustrating as the abandonment of plot points and characters who seemed destined to figure prominently in the finale. This is one of those movies you have to retrace to comprehend, but when you do so, the events don't fully gel. There's a level of ambiguity that spurs conversation, and there's a level that spurs confusion and annoyance, and The Box ultimately crosses that line.

Although the cast is strong, their performances are uneven. Diaz's Southern accent is laughably overdone, and some of the emotions conveyed from multiple characters are so unreadable that you have to wonder if Kelly instructed the actors to confuse the audience. That said, the actors are still likable, and the largely unknown supporting cast performs admirably, selling a story that they themselves probably don't understand.