The Box
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn, Gillian Jacobs
Screenplay: Richard Kelly, based on the short story Button, Button by Richard Matheson
Director: Richard Kelly
1976. Things are tough for Norma and Arthur Lewis. He's a NASA scientist who's been turned down for astronaut training. She's a teacher at a private school, and has been informed that the school will no longer pay for their son's tuition. Enter the mysterious, gruesomely scarred Arlington Steward, bearing a box with a button. Press it, and they will be paid a million dollars. The consequence is that someone, somewhere in the world who they do not know will die.
First things first: I thought I'd like The Box. And after I watched it, I found that I didn't. Now, my opinion may well change after a second viewing; there is a lot in the film, I think, that would benefit from a re-watch. But this first time left me cold. Richard Kelly's return to cinema after the roundly derided Southland Tales is a very mixed bag. The big plus is that it's a great moral conundrum that the characters have to face. Financial security weighed against the life of a stranger. And to the characters' credit, it's a decision that they don't take lightly. But they do take it. And it's there that the story begins to slip. It's obvious from the get-go that Steward isn't telling them everything, but the morality of their decision is inescapable. And it's not a spoiler to tell you that they make the wrong choice. Otherwise, there would be no film.
A big problem lies in the casting. Of course, the Lewis family isn't exactly on the poverty line. Both Arthur and Norma have good jobs. As Arthur points out, they don't need a million dollars to be happy. The film is set in Virginia, which means that Diaz is playing a Southern housewife, which, contrary to other reviews, she does not pull off. Just because she's now age-appropriate, it doesn't mean the actress can get away with giving what is a fundamentally bad performance. The Luthers also have a son, which the characters only seem to remember when it's necessary for the story. As Norma becomes more and more distraught, Diaz' performance frays at the seams. Marsden fares better in an admittedly less challenging role, but suffers the same pitfalls towards the final third. That said, the two actors work best when they are with each other. A sub-plot involving Arthur creating a prosthetic for Norma's disfigured foot is performed gently and sweetly by the two leads. But generally, I did find myself wondering if the film would have worked better with different actors in the roles of the Luthers. Of the leads, only Frank Langella finds the happy medium between auto-pilot and ham as the enigmatic Steward, giving the occasional twitch of empathy even as his incredibly cruel mission continues onwards
There's also a unforgivablewaste of the supporting talent. Celia Weston and Holmes Osborne are given little to do as Norma's parents, and deserve much more screen-time. Osborne was fantastic as the father in Donnie Darko, while Weston (Observe and Report, Igby Goes Down, Junebug) seems condemned to play drunken inadequate Southern moms for the rest of her career (admittedly, she does it very well). Superb character actor James Rebhorn (The Game, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Carlito's Way) is given even less in what is potentially the most interesting character in the film, as Arthur's boss who uncovers the truth surrounding Steward. Frankly, a film based around him would have made for a much more compelling movie. There is also good work from Community star Gillian Jacobs as the Luthers' babysitter who may be linked to Seward.As for the story, it has its twists and turns but is finally fairly straightforward. There's no room for interpretation here, as there was in Donnie Darko, and Richard Kelly refuses to get lost in the twists and turns as he did in Southland Tales. But this means that some of the more interesting aspects end up unexplored. For all of Southland Tales' faults (and there were many), it did not lack for ambition. I'm not criticising The Box for keeping it's focus relatively tight, but the film's decision to not explore the grander scheme means that the it lives and dies by its lead characters. And frankly I found it difficult to care. I'm not against movie-star casting, and I understand why it was necessary for Kelly to cast a big-name (otherwise a film like this would not have been made in the studio system), but the star must be able to make us forget that we're watching a star. Diaz simply does not work here.
The Box is certainly not a disaster, however. Kelly has a knack for the unnerving, and several sequences here will have you at the edge of your seat, provided that you are willing to go along with it. Seward informs Norma that he has many employees, dead-eyed nose-bleeders who trail our heroes wherever they go. The best use of this, however, is during a scene in which Gillian Jacobs' babysitter sees a shadow outside the window. A similar sequence, in which we actually see one of these men watching Norma from her yard works well, but not as well as before. By the time crowds of these people are following Arthur and Norma around a library, it's a trick repeated once too often.
It's worth watching The Box. I suspect that I might have enjoyed it more in a different mood, or if I watch it again. There are scenes in the film that will remind you why we all went ga-ga over Richard Kelly in the first place. The 1976 setting is rendered beautifully, from the costumes to the set-design, and the NASA-Mars connection is certainly intriguing. I'm favourably inclined to films that aren't afraid to embrace more fantastical and bizarre influences, particularly from this period, but I do think that by the second act, in which Richard is forced to choose a wormhole, you'll know which side of the fence you're on. I do think that Button, Button may have best been left as a short story, however. A noble effort, perhaps. But there is too much here that does not work for The Box to be a success.6/10
