'The Box' movie review
Phillip Fairbrother
Issue date: 11/11/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Richard Matheson got his point across in 12 pages. The Twilight Zone conveyed the same message in 25 minutes. So my question is this: Why does it take writer and director Richard Kelly nearly two hours to make the same simple statement?
The Box (which is loosely based on Matheson's short story Button, Button) is an over-complication of a story that should have been kept simple. The premise is pretty straight forward. A strange man named Arlington Steward (played by Frank Langella) delivers a package to a young couple named Norma and Arthur Lewis. When the couple (played by Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) opens the package to find a simple wooden device with a button, they are confronted with a moral dilemma. If they push the button, they will receive one million dollars. As soon as they push the button though, someone in the world, who they don't know, will die.
"The short story was almost like a great set up for act one of a movie," says Kelly, who also wrote and directed the cult classic, Donnie Darko. "There was one line in the short story that sent my mind racing. It was when [the couple] asked who Mr. Steward worked for, and he said 'I can assure you that the organization is large and international in scope.' And that to me was just so fascinating because I had so many questions." Kelly decided to write a screenplay for the story to look further into the background of the characters. He wanted to try to explain exactly who Mr. Steward worked for and what the purpose of the button-unit was.
Instead, the moral of the story gets lost throughout the film. A wonderful work of social commentary is quickly destroyed when a ridiculously over-played plot twist reveals the true source of the box.
Setting cliché antagonists aside, the storyline is hard to follow. A plot that starts off simple suddenly feels like an artsy remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Add to the mix the mediocre performances by the cast (Diaz excluded). Even though I was not a fan of her southern accent and a few more unnecessary tangents, then what you have is a beautifully thought out moral drowning in a never ending ocean of already-seen-it plot twists.
The Box (which is loosely based on Matheson's short story Button, Button) is an over-complication of a story that should have been kept simple. The premise is pretty straight forward. A strange man named Arlington Steward (played by Frank Langella) delivers a package to a young couple named Norma and Arthur Lewis. When the couple (played by Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) opens the package to find a simple wooden device with a button, they are confronted with a moral dilemma. If they push the button, they will receive one million dollars. As soon as they push the button though, someone in the world, who they don't know, will die.
"The short story was almost like a great set up for act one of a movie," says Kelly, who also wrote and directed the cult classic, Donnie Darko. "There was one line in the short story that sent my mind racing. It was when [the couple] asked who Mr. Steward worked for, and he said 'I can assure you that the organization is large and international in scope.' And that to me was just so fascinating because I had so many questions." Kelly decided to write a screenplay for the story to look further into the background of the characters. He wanted to try to explain exactly who Mr. Steward worked for and what the purpose of the button-unit was.
Instead, the moral of the story gets lost throughout the film. A wonderful work of social commentary is quickly destroyed when a ridiculously over-played plot twist reveals the true source of the box.
Setting cliché antagonists aside, the storyline is hard to follow. A plot that starts off simple suddenly feels like an artsy remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Add to the mix the mediocre performances by the cast (Diaz excluded). Even though I was not a fan of her southern accent and a few more unnecessary tangents, then what you have is a beautifully thought out moral drowning in a never ending ocean of already-seen-it plot twists.
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