Cinema review
Directed by Richard Kelly
Starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
Release date 4 December 2009 (UK)

A married couple struggle with a moral dilemma. If they press a button on a seemingly empty box they'll get $1 million – but it will cause someone they don't know to die…

Richard Kelly badly needed a hit. After Southland Tales wiped out much of the goodwill generated by the wonderful Donnie Darko, he’s been under considerable pressure to deliver. Unfortunately Kelly's latest brain-teaser has once again failed to set the US box office alight, and it’s not difficult to see why.

The premise, based on the Richard Matheson short story ‘Button, Button’ and previously filmed as a Twilight Zone episode, is certainly intriguing. It’s an idea that has the potential to work as a close examination of the morality of killing a stranger for money and, indeed, for a solid half hour, The Box is a focused and convincing take on Matheson’s taut tale. The 1970s setting feels authentic and the performances from Diaz and Marsden are suitably intense, though Frank Langella’s Arlington Steward, the figure who brings the box to the family, is a rather stoic, expository role with little depth. Despite the plaudits Langella has received from some quarters, it’s hardly on a par with his recent turn as Nixon.

The film really starts to fall apart once the story that made up the original Twilight Zone episode finishes. At this point The Box descends into a substandard X-Files romp with just about everything thrown in but with little reward for the audience. Kelly piles on daft plot twists, government conspiracies that are explained in meticulous detail (yet are still incomprehensible), abductions, random nosebleeds, and groups of people acting as if they were one. It’s all over the place without any sense of focus, as if Kelly’s attention span wouldn’t allow him to see his story to its conclusion without taking multiple diversions.

The director and cast treat all of this with sincerity but it’s turgid stuff. It’s a marked improvement on Southland Tales – at least with The Box there is a sense that the film will end at some point – but beyond an intriguing opening 30 minutes, this is deeply frustrating viewing. Jonathan Wilkins

VERDICT: 3/10
The Box is best left shut.