Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden

Richard Kelly once again squeezes our mind-grapes in his trademark style. The Box follows a couple played by Diaz and Marsden who are offered the opportunity to make a million dollars to push a button and be responsible for the death of one person, somewhere in the world, they don’t know. Unbeknown to the pair, this choice is just the beginning of a mind-bending series of events that will tear the family and even the human race apart.

Let me be clear about one thing. This is not the movie that is advertised in the trailer. What we saw in the trailer was a glimpse of a rather boring mediocre chase thriller. Only fleetingly do we get a sense of the hard core attention-hungry sci-fi that The Box turns out to be. I, for one, was very happy that this was the case. The surprise of being given a thinky, head-scratchy sci-fi that has been given the Donnie Darko treatment by Kelly was a pleasant one.

Lead performances were admirable, if not out-standing and Frank Langella provided the best of the bunch as the malevolent Arlington Steward. Supporting performances did, however leave a deal to be desired. But the acting of the cast played second fiddle to Kelly’s strange, love-it-or-hate-it style of direction. It was his intense close-ups and dramatic long zooms that almost provided an additional character that turned an easily forgettable sci-fi mindfuck into something more. This coupled with an eerie, mis-matched score certainly kept me on my toes throughout the film’s two-hour running time. Another aspect of this Donnie Darko treatment is the fact that Kelly has very deliberately chosen a time period other than the present to provide the perfect setting for the movie. Setting The Box in the 1970′s means he not only has great stylistic components to work with but it also allows him extra credibility when working with his characters’ placement in NASA’s golden age. That’s not mentioning the fact that there is no Internet and there are no mobile phones, two things that could have blown planet sized holes in the plot had it been set in the present.

The weakest part of the movie, sadly, is the ending. It seems rather abrupt and leaves you asking more questions than it ultimately answers but you also get the feeling that this is exactly how Kelly wanted it. Donnie Darko did the same thing and many people believe it to be the key to that film’s success. The Box’s ending, however lacked a lot of the finesse of Donnie Darko and depending on how much you enjoyed the preceding 90 minutes you will either find this a mild annoyance or a nail in the coffin.

All of these factors are subjective. They won’t be for everybody. Certainly if you didn’t enjoy Donnie Darko, there’s a good chance that The Box won’t do anything for you either. Still, if you like classical sci-fi that doesn’t insult your intelligence then it could well be worth checking out when it somes out on DVD.

Verdict: