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Why The Box may be the final nail in Richard Kelly's coffin
The biggest secret in Richard Kelly's new film The Box is just how awful it is. Badly paced, plotted, directed and acted, the film really defies understanding how and why anyone other than Kelly not only would want to see it, but would make it in the first place. In fact, the only good thing that might come from its release is the final nail in the Donnie Darko and Southland Tales director's coffin, because otherwise The Box is by far one of the year's worst films.
It stars James Marsden (Enchanted) and Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels) as Arthur and Norma Lewis, a happily married couple presented with a unique offer: press the button in a small wooden box and receive one million dollars, but only after a person whom they don't know is murdered. Frustrated by her debt and Arthur's disappointing developments at work, Norma presses the button, but their financial relief immediately gives way to dread when they realize that the button's owner, Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), intends to offer it to someone else—specifically whom they do not know.
Before long, Arthur and Norma find themselves ensconced in a mysterious plot and a government conspiracy that will not only force them to answer for the choice, but possibly repay that debt with their very lives.
Set in Virginia in 1976, the movie attempts to integrate an intriguing but poorly developed geographic and historical context, resulting in some terrible Southern accents and a boatload of vintage NASA mumbo-jumbo that not only doesn't make sense but has no bearing whatsoever on the plot. But then again, it's unclear what if anything that happens in the film has to do with any deeper examination or exploration of any theme or idea, since Kelly strings scenes together with such incompetence that The Box never gains any narrative or dramatic momentum.
Supposedly there's an extraterrestrial component to the plot—something about otherworldly creatures that use the box as a test for humankind. But rather than bother to consider or deconstruct the self-righteousness of an alien race that makes itself a galactic arbiter of which civilizations live and die, Kelly offers half-formed meditations on the morality of success at the literal expense of other people that anyone could understand, and without having to sit through two hours of abominable, twangy accents.
Worse, Kelly never indulges either the characters' celebration of their newfound financial freedom or the audience's appetite for supernatural spectacle. While it's perhaps understandable that Arthur and Norma might have some initial remorse over pushing the button, shouldn't they at the very least get one scene where they're able to enjoy life? Or, in lieu of that, once the film's monolithic forces take command of their lives, why do we never get to understand or even just see on camera what it is that seems to be exciting or terrifying them so much? The characters speak in hushed tones about places that "are neither here nor there," but all the viewer gets to watch is an empty airplane hangar, a library and a motel pool that swirls around like a flushed toilet when people descend into its water.
Then again, Kelly's melodramatic, clichéd storytelling seems primarily designed to offer trailer-worthy, throwaway dialogue rather than relevant insights and updates on what the hell is happening. A stupid conversation about turning off the Christmas tree lights exists only so that Arthur can casually say "Everybody dies," and then, later, a chat between Arthur and a babysitter occurs so she can offer comments like "You've got blood on your hands," and "Somebody's pressing your buttons!" Not unlike the one fairly terrific sequence in Southland Tales where Justin Timberlake lip-syncs to the Killers, Kelly demonstrates that he's adept at conceiving interesting moments but has zero capacity for connecting them to something larger or more meaningful.
All of which brings us to the biggest problem with The Box: It has absolutely no central idea other than the single-minded moral dilemma whether these two people should push the button. The story by Richard Matheson upon which the film was based runs some six pages or so and essentially ends about 35 minutes into the movie's running time, leaving some 90 more for the Lewis family to face the repercussions of that decision. But what that means to Kelly is that he can then present them with even more "choices," none of which make any sense or mean anything to either the box's "master plan" or even just the story itself.
I think you absolutely can tell a story where characters make a morally dubious choice and yet remain sympathetic or interesting, but at least in a science fiction setting, that requires motivations that are equally interesting, even if they're not yet known to the characters themselves. Kelly's concept is so ineffective that the movie reaches a point where no payoff will satisfy its mysteries, leaving audiences languishing in his knockoff-Kubrick visual fetishism without any hope for redemption, catharsis or even empty entertainment.
Truth be told, the movie's problems are quite frankly too many to fully enumerate, especially since they only obscure the saddest fact, which is that Kelly's concept for this story—which was already (and appropriately) translated into a serviceable Twilight Zone episode—is stunningly unoriginal, even outside the context of its source material. Donnie Darko's occasional, idiosyncratic charms aside (only in the theatrical cut, mind you), Richard Kelly appears to be unable to shape his ramshackle creativity into something that's remotely coherent, much less commercially appealing, and this film is especially distressing because it seems to think it has the form of a crowd pleaser, when it doesn't even have the integrity of an auteur's vision.
Ultimately, it's just a big, incomprehensible, cliché-laden mess. Spare yourself from The Box pushing your buttons as it pushed mine, and with any luck we won't have to choose whether to suffer through another one of Kelly's films ever again.
By josefsalyer at 10:00 AM ON 11/06/09
@arcturan: touché! But I'll probably still go see it.
By divephotog at 10:00 AM ON 11/06/09
The movie has such a dark and terrible premise to begin with.... Greed, and Murder...
Honestly, not a one of us would turn down the chance at a million, save the guy putting up orbiting hotels, and a few lucky people. Add in the loss of a life in some remote corner of the world, and that would be fine, but when it is in your own home, it becomes different.
Not a place anyone would want to imagine themselves...
Of course,we can all think of someone we would eliminate for the $$,if not some politician or other... -kh
By jedimom at 10:16 AM ON 11/06/09
sounds like they ruined a good concept a la Monkeys Paw
By The Orphan at 10:17 AM ON 11/06/09
'Donnie Darko' worked because at its heart it was an emotional story of a high school boy's life- something that could still work without all the added gimmicks. Now Kelly seems to be concentrating more on the tricks and gimmicks and being clever, with characters as merely devices.
By anachronite at 10:23 AM ON 11/06/09
my guess is she pushes the button gets the $1 million and someone dies. The person who dies is probably the last person who pushed the button, and then twhen the next person pushes the bottun someone will be trying to kill her. sounds fun! I doubt Langella and Diaz would do the movie if it was a bad script. I don;t trust SyFy reviews as they are the folks that well, brought us SyFy, channel of idiodic and fake ghost busting, bigfoot hunting, and wrestling shows.
By datarat at 10:39 AM ON 11/06/09
@divephotog: I beg to differ. I really wouldn't push the button knowing that someone else in the world would die. People die by accident all the time, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to be responsible. That's nothing more than murder.
Having said that, I think a very compelling story could be told about a person who DIDN'T push the button, and the constant second guessing of the decision, the recriminations from loved ones, or the attempts at manipulation by those who had a less...principled stand.
However that, too, would make a lousy movie.
By Seanbtwo at 11:39 AM ON 11/06/09
He's right when he says that the Theatrical version of Donny Darko was far better than the directors cut (I assume thats what he meant).
The directors cut totally butchers the pacing of the film, cuts out some of the best music and adds explanatory scenes where none should be. As for this flick, I was hoping he'd evolved a bit as a director, but it seems this is most unfortunately not the case.
By Red Mask at 12:03 PM ON 11/06/09
Having watched neither Donnie Darko or Southland Tales, I have no idea what makes this concept so bad. It sounds like what the title claims: it's a box. But if the guy is saying Kelly is no David Lynch, well d'uh...
By BuddyinKC at 12:17 PM ON 11/06/09
Folks should just stick with Richard Matheson's stories. The Box is a pretty simple short story with a twist ending that never should have been made into a crap film.
By me at 12:24 PM ON 11/06/09
Thanks for the review. I've seen enough bad movies for several lifetimes. I'll pass on this.
By javaman at 12:32 PM ON 11/06/09
The Twilight Zone episode was good.
I just can't see this being drawn out to 90 minutes.
By BuddyinKC at 12:40 PM ON 11/06/09
Yeah, the story (which was entitled, "Button, Button" ran 10 pages. Obviously any movie is going to be completely different.
By Dragon at 2:28 PM ON 11/06/09
Not only all this but I seen this same concept done in an Outer Limits/Twilight Zone episode - on TV in the 80/90s
By elswick1979 at 3:00 PM ON 11/06/09
I bet its as great as those Sci-fi Saturday movies, the wire sold out and I'll bet we'll see "The Box" airing on Sci-fi in a few years
By ATK at 3:09 PM ON 11/06/09
Ahh finally someone is catching on to what I realized when I first saw Donnie Darko: a bunch of cool scenes strung together in a wavy line does not equate to a good movie. I hope this is the final nail in the coffin for Kelly.
By Gucci Sneakers at 2:36 AM ON 11/07/09
In honor of the film, Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini has designed a special, limited edition T-shirt, which will be sold in select Gucci stores worldwide and on gucci.com. Extending the message of sustainability, Giannini designed the T-shirt using 100% organic cotton and natural dyes in recyclable packaging. The design features the official HOME logo in which Giannini has integrated the iconic Gucci “GG” symbol, while the back includes the names of each country featured in the film. A white canvas bag with the HOME logo in gold accompanies the T-shirt. On sale from May 25 the T-shirt will be available in both men’s and women’s sizes, with all profits donated to Goodplanet.org, a non-profit association created by Yann Arthus-Bertrand in 2005.
http://www.guccisneakers1.com
By fanbla72 at 5:38 AM ON 11/07/09
i hope Kelly fails again, thereby destroying his career and any chance of his involvement in the production of any more films and so there will be more of the limited amount of film funding to go into making classics such as [insert your current favourite flick here].
By CENSORED THREAD! at 10:07 AM ON 11/07/09
Syfy AGAIN took out any anti-Syfy comments here. LET US SAY WHAT WE WANT! All your censorship just makes you look incredibly lame!
By EH at 11:03 AM ON 11/07/09
Saw this last night and it was so bad we are still confused. There was no congruence, no explanations, no character development. I wanted it to be one of those "so bad it's good" movies. But it was just really really bad. A woman sitting near us said "I sure wish I'd stayed at Happy Hour because I have no idea what I just saw."
By EH at 11:08 AM ON 11/07/09
Saw this last night and it was so bad we are still confused. There was no congruence, no explanations, no character development. I wanted it to be one of those "so bad it's good" movies. But it was just really really bad. A woman sitting near us said "I sure wish I'd stayed at Happy Hour because I have no idea what I just saw."
By AngryJonny at 2:32 PM ON 11/07/09
I think the theatrical cut (haven't seen the director's) of Donnie Darko has a lot more going for it than "occasional, idiosyncratic charms," but after hearing such awful things about Southland Tales and now The Box, I'm afraid it does seem like Richard Kelly is indeed a one-hit wonder. Too bad...
By VB at 11:06 PM ON 11/08/09
Ill keep it short: You Mr.Gilchirst are CRAZY. This movie was great! It has all kinds of things going for it. I'm glad directors of this kind (Kelly,Shyamalan,Nolan) are making movies that are not the norm, but rather movies that keep one thinking about the world they create in 2 hours.
By Virgil's Diner at 9:37 AM ON 11/09/09
Richard Kelly is the kind of guy who most likely never draw critical consensus again - people will love him or hate him. To those who say this movie is the nail in his Hollywood coffin, I have two words for you: Uwe Boll. If Uwe Boll has yet to be prosecuted for his crimes against film, then Richard Kelly has nothing to fear. Oh, and as for critical consensus - on Rotten Tomatoes, Boll runs the gamut from 0%-11% fresh. Yes, his highest rated movie is 11% fresh.
By scubafiend at 1:45 PM ON 11/11/09
divephotog, I sure hope you are never in the position to decide someone else's fate based upon your greed.
I wouldn't push the button, regardless of who would die and the ramifications to me simply because it is wrong. The concept of consequences for your actions is a good one to create a film on, but so far I haven't been motivated by the previews to go see this one...
By Pissed former fan at 6:39 PM ON 11/21/09
The box is a total flop. For the past 2 weeks I have been thinking 1) how on earth did he get money 2) where these monies could have been spent for much greater good. Please, do not even try to compare him to David Lynch or Kubrick, it is insult for their fans! I used to be Kelly's fan, but nor anymore. He is pretentious, he has no life experiences (well apart from time well spent in fraternity house), and most importantly he has nothing to say. In addition, he is a lousy writer. Somebody mentione that on his twitter page it is said that he is writing again! Please do not give him any money!!! And finally, "movie oracle" got all F's from the audiences, something which happens very rarely. The box, the worst movie of 2009!
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Pissed former fan:
The box is a total flop. For the past 2 weeks I have been thinking 1) how on earth did he get money 2) where these ...More »