Love or hate the work of Richard Kelly, there is no denying this writer/director has had a huge impact on the celluloid world. 2001’s Donnie Darko was the film hundreds of movie geeks the world over had been waiting for: an utterly original dark portrayal of a troubled youth (Jake Gyllenhaal) set in the 80’s that is now a cult phenomenon. Although it borrowed motifs from other films, nobody had seen anything quite like it before. The eccentric editing and camera angles, hallucinatory sequences, and the ability to raise more questions than provide answers all added up to an unforgettable movie experience and is rich enough for many repeat viewings. His follow up Southland Tales is an apocalyptic futuristic film that received less-than-stellar attention, critically and commercially, but does have a small cadre of admirers. It is apparent that with The Box, Kelly is trying to move out of the alternative and somewhat into the mainstream.
But his definition of ‘mainstream’ is probably not what you might think. Aside from having some familiar faces (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella), this movie is utterly mired in weirdness. Based on Richard Matheson’s short piece Button, Button – things start of subtly creepy and delve into that weird and wonderful dominion where we try to decipher a challenging and complex series of intrigues like a Russian doll piece. And this is a good thing. The Box requires your unmitigated participation. Nothing is overtly ‘done to you’. It’s up to you the viewer to connect the dots and find your own way to revelation.
Norma and Arthur Lewis are happily married suburbanites in 1976 with a young son. They are awoken one night by their doorbell ringing and find nothing but a package that contains a small wooden box with a button on top. Initially, the bearer of the gift disappears, and we are slowly introduced into their lives. Author works for NASA in development; Norma is a teacher with a secret. While somewhat mundane as this progresses, I loved this aspect of it. It’s like taking a short trip inside Richard Kelly’s skull: his own father worked for NASA, and the decade is pulled off with precision: the houses, automobiles, and fashion almost induce aching nostalgia. Of course, the mysterious stranger returns, and informs the couple that if they press the button they will be awarded one million dollars tax-free. The price is that someone that they do not know will die. Simple as that. Except its not, and the consequences are more far reaching than either of them can imagine.
There is a slight carnival feel to The Box. Like King’s Needful Things we have the dark, forbidding stranger that is almost gentlemanly in nature but isn’t altogether human. If you’re familiar with Donnie Darko and Southland Tales you’ll see many of the same faces from those films. Toward the end the same effects are ratcheted up as we cross into other realms of experience. There’s a touch of humor … and the feeling of being in suburbia but ensconced in the otherworldly is hard to describe. Performances are solid, especially those of Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella. The music (composed entirely by Arcade Fire), is used to fantastic effect and becomes a pivotal part of the crescendo toward the end.
Before The Box terminates from our screens, I feel it wise to have one more screening. Richard Kelly has obviously designed it this way and there is still so much to explore …
Review by Matthew Tait
(And a Happy Halloween from me too)!
Review by Matthew Tait
(And a Happy Halloween from me too)!
The story continues after the events of Saw V, where Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) walks out of the glass box and leaves no trails leading to him as Agent Strahm's murderer. Forensics have yet to discover Strahm and his missing body when a young teenager is found to be the latest survivor of the Jigsaw games. The survivor, known as Garett, reveals the circumstances of his trap to Hoffman, who interrogates him. At this point, Hoffman is shocked to find Garett was targeted, even though Garett did nothing wrong in his life to make him a candidate for being "tested". Fearing that he may make himself too obvious or that Garett could soon discover his secret, Hoffman throws him into a vast game in which hopefully his secret will die with Garett. However, we have yet to realize that Garett's role in the games may have an unexpected turn of events in the Saw franchise ...
Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden), a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift that bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don’t know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
