The Box (2009)

Directed by: Richard Kelly

Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella

Review by: Britt Hayes

On December 16, 1976, NASA scientist Arthur Lewis, and his school teacher wife, Norma, are delivered a mysterious box by the enigmatic Arlington Steward. Later that day, Mr. Steward comes to call on the home and explains to Norma that in the box is a “button unit”, one which, if pressed, will kill someone Norma and her husband do not know. If they press the button, they will receive $1 million. Mr. Steward couldn’t have better timing, as the discount tuition for the children of faculty members has been cancelled at the private school where Norma teaches (and her son Walter attends), and her husband’s bid to enter the astronaut program has been rejected.

Norma and Arthur are now faced with a moral dilemma. Those familiar with the original Twilight Zone episode, penned by Richard Matheson, know that shortly after pressing the button, Mr. Steward returns to the home, grants the couple the money, and then tells them not to worry because he will deliver the box to someone they “don’t know”. What’s great about the original Twilight Zone entry is that the story is rather simple, making the twist more effective. This is where Richard Kelly fails.

The Box is a good movie, but it isn’t great. After the first half hour rehashes the original story (except for the end, in which the husband dies) and builds some excellent tension, Kelly begins expanding upon Mr. Steward and the how’s and why’s. This is where things get a bit over the top. There’s a definite wave motion throughout the film. At times, the plot seems to be moving in a very interesting and suspenseful direction, but then becomes repetitive and slow. Kelly then introduces more layers to the plot, and it starts to feel like it’s just not working anymore. But then 10 minutes later, and you feel like you’re in sync with the film again. This motion repeats throughout, and the residual feeling is sort of lukewarm. Kelly’s story grows increasingly complex, and the more he adds on, the more it feels like overkill. Not that The Box is a difficult film to follow or understand, but what starts as a simple and suspenseful morality play gets bogged under the hefty layers Kelly continuously adds. Like said, at times you feel like the film is working again, and just when you’re comfortable with where it’s heading, it switches gear, and a period of readjustment occurs.

So what does work in the film? The characters work for the most part. Arthur is a simple family man with dreams of going to space, but his dreams are dashed when he fails the psychological exam on his Astronaut entrance test. If the film didn’t get so weighed down with too much plot, this element would have been more important, but since Kelly keeps laying his cards out on the table, the psychological flaws of Arthur don’t feel so exceptional. James Marsden starts off with a subtle southern accent, but half an hour into the film and he loses it completely; on the other hand, Cameron Diaz’s Norma sounds an awful lot like Anna Paquin’s Sookie Stackhouse, of True Blood, and is often distracting.

Frank Langella’s Arlington Steward is the most interesting character in the whole film, and even when the plot gets too heavy, he’s the part of the film that makes you want to keep following. There are moments between Mr. Steward and Norma that are truly wonderful to watch, where Langella lets just a smidgen of emotion shine through.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the effects in The Box, the most amazing of which was Mr. Steward’s face. The effects here are so seamless and absolutely awe-inspiring. I read an interview with Richard Kelly where he discussed the effects a few months or so back. While Kelly was working on The Box, Chris Nolan was also working on The Dark Knight. One got wind of what the other was doing with facial effects, and Nolan came to visit Kelly to make sure they weren’t doing the same thing. In some ways, Mr. Steward’s face almost trumps The Dark Knight’s Two Face. I think the element that makes Mr. Steward’s face more impressive is that his burn is more clean, which leaves room for more flaws, effects-wise, but damned if I could find a single one.

As impressive as Steward’s face is, there are several effects involving water that look like they were taken straight out of an episode of Stargate on SyFy. Big, rectangular blocks of water, and another circular wall of water are sub-par in comparison to the excellent facial effects. They feel almost like a video game, and border on cartoonish. At one point, Arthur, as seen in previews, bursts out of a block of water. The block itself doesn’t look very good, but when he comes out of the water and it explodes all over the couple’s bed, it’s still effective, mostly due to the use of practical effects (a water tank, obviously).

Aside from the poor water effects, the other technical elements of the film are excellent and the film feels like it’s actually from the 70’s. Kelly employs a soft glow throughout most of the film, which I found off-putting at first, but it really began to grown on me, feeling cohesive with his vision. The set design is detailed and I found myself looking for hints of modern day, or some small flaw, but found none. Everything was period-accurate and shows that Kelly really does his homework.

The score is beautiful, and, in keeping with the time period, a bit quirky. Members of The Arcade Fire (one of my favorite bands) composed the score, and it sounds perfectly vintage. The cues sound like something out of Hitchcock or Kubrick.

Unfortunately, Kelly goes a bit too far in his plot. It becomes rather heavy and convoluted at times. The Box feels like a Hitchcock film that should’ve been directed by Kubrick and wants to be closer to Fincher. David Fincher is brilliant with time periods, so it becomes easy to invoke his name in describing The Box, but Kelly falls short of what makes a Fincher film work. If Kelly had taken the right notes from Hitchcock and Kubrick, he perhaps would have had more restraint. What makes the films of those directors work so well is the simplicity. Even the Twilight Zone episode Kelly was expanding on was rather simple. It’s understandable to want to open up the story for a feature film, but at some point there is just too much on the screen, and the end of the film loses some of its gravity. Kelly needs to learn how to reign himself back in a little, and in the future, perhaps the payoff will be more compelling; instead, the ultimate climax of the film is less interesting than everything that comes before it. All of the twists and turns that Kelly takes end up flat in the end, and I left the theater feeling emotionally confused.

People have said that The Box is Richard Kelly’s last chance. Donnie Darko was his first film and became an instant cult classic. We waited years to see his next project, Southland Tales, which was stuck in production hell for what seemed like an eternity. The end result was a film that was tepid and often ridiculous. The Box is Kelly’s big studio chance to shine and prove that he still has what it takes to make a highly effective film. Does he? For the most part. Kelly is just a hair away from making The Box fully functional. While the film is good, it stops short of great, but I believe that there is an excellent movie in there waiting to be revealed.