Susan Granger’s review of “The Box” (Warner Bros.)
Sci-fi movies like “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “I Am Legend” and “Somewhere in Time” sprang from the visionary mind of writer Richard Matheson, who wrote the terrific short story “Button, Button” on which this movie is based – and never has his work been so badly served.
Writer/director Richard Kelly (“Donnie Darko,” “Southland Tales”) has totally botched the provocative, philosophical concept that revolves around a couple who face a moral dilemma: if they push a button that will kill a complete stranger somewhere in the world, they will get one million tax-free dollars.
Set during the 1976 Christmas holidays, Norma Lewis (Cameron Diaz), her husband Arthur (James Marsden) and son Walter (Sam Oz Stone) live in an affluent Richmond, Virginia suburb. Driving a new Corvette, Arthur is a NASA engineer, an optics expert and inventor who worked on the Mars Viking landing. Norma teaches literature at a pricey private school and suffers from a limp that was the result of medical negligence. When Arthur doesn’t get promoted to astronaut status and Norma is told that her son can no longer get a discount on his private-school tuition, an ominous, facially disfigured stranger, Arlington Stewart (Frank Langella) drops a mysterious box containing the big red death button on their doorstep with the thought-provoking proposition.
Right away, there’s a problem: Kelly’s stakes for making this kind of choice are too low. The Lewises are not in dire financial straits; their house isn’t into foreclosure. They’ve simply suffered a minor setback which is hardly a reason to deliberately kill someone. Instead of delving into the psychological or existential ramifications of the enigmatic device or the Lewises’ selfish decision, Kelly abruptly veers off into the weirdly supernatural, involving zombie-like people with nosebleeds, eerie encounters by a motel swimming pool, and a murky government conspiracy which he never bothers to explain. This pretentious poppycock masquerades as an allegory and the acting is awful, particularly Diaz’ attempt at a Southern accent. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Box” is a foolish, maudlin, confusing 3. Don’t bother.
