The Box - 2 Reviews, 1 Movie

Over the weekend, Troy and I went and saw Richard Kelly’s The Box serparately and thought it would be interesting to post both of our reviews so that you could see how one person can interpert something entirely different from another. Below is his review which is then followed up by my own. Read them over and let us know what you think.

From Troy:
(MAJOR FUCKING SPOILERS!!!)

It's been well documented that Donnie Darko is one of my favorite films (click here for proof). Richard Kelley will always have a special place in my cold heart because of that movie. In my mind, if he never made a good movie again I really wouldn't care, but I REALLY want him to keep making good movies because I love high concept ideas and he is all about that shit.

We all know Southland Tales was a complete debacle and while it was a great idea conceptually, he really went nuts with that one. Let's just say i didn't like it and move on.

When I heard about "The Box" I was immediately interested because it was his movie and I knew it would be high concept and I also knew it probably wouldn't be as crazy as Southland Tales - I imagine he is under some pressure from Hollywood now to make a profitable film again. Also, I knew the original story is based off of an older short story that was later turned into a Twilight Zone episode. But Richard Kelley wouldn't just go with that and he sure as hell didn't. He really made it his own movie.

Basically, the movie is about a couple who receives a box with a button in it. They are told by a strange man with half a face that if they push it they will receive $1 million, but that at the same time someone they don't know will die. Of course they push it. They have to or there wouldn't be a movie to watch. But it's not exactly "them" who push it. It's more the wife (Cameron Diaz) who pushes it while her husband just sits by and doesn't stop her. (Sound familiar? Well it will by the end of this review.)

I am going to skip to the end because it's WAY too involved to write the whole story out. In a nutshell, it's about a dude who is being controlled by aliens to test the human race and they way they do the tests is through this box. What really happens is if you push it someone does die but you will also be the next to die because whoever pushes the button next is killing you. Oh and one more thing, by pushing the button eventually your child will become blind and deaf. The person who didn't push the button will then have to make a choice about either having to leave you alive and deal with the deaf and blind child or kill you and the child is fine again.

One of the things I always love about his movies are the hidden meanings. He loves to write stuff that's more than the obvious. Here is why I LIKED the movie.... It's a very interesting and brilliant way to write the story of mankind. The question is, are humans good or evil? For some reason all throughout history we always choose evil and the box is no exception. Everyone seems to push the damn button. Now are you ready to get really deep?

The alien dude is being controlled by Martians (or something like that) who are the true creators of mankind (see the X-Files). This is not a new theory and is more believable than some dude sitting around bored thinking shit up for six days and then gets tired and takes a break on the seventh. Anyway, in the Bible it says that man is created in God's image and so who is God exactly? If God is mankind’s creator than in this story the aliens are mankind’s true God and have the power to erase us from existence. So instead of just doing it they are performing tests to see if humans are worthy of existence. Every living creature serves a purpose to benefit the earth except for humans. We just destroy things over time and over populate until we get to the point where we will have to look for another planet to live on eventually. The aliens can see this and thus are giving us a chance to at least prove that we are not totally evil by using the box experiment. Of course we keep pushing the fucking button and because of that are eventually doomed.

But where have we seen this before? The Bible. Yes, this is Richard Kelley's way of telling the story of Adam and Eve (aka mankind) in his own clever and more creative way. You see just like the book of Genesis, God creates a tree with tempting fruit and tells them if you eat from this tree you die, but will then gain knowledge. Just as in this story, God (the aliens) tell the couple if you push this button someone will die (also because of that you will too), but you will then receive a lot of money. And just as it was written in Genesis, the woman is the one to do the evil deed and the man sits by and doesn't stop her. And just like in Genesis, God (the aliens) place a burden on both of them. In the bible it's child birth and hard work in the fields and in this story it's the death of the wife (mother) and the husband having to live his life without his wife and the knowledge that he murdered her and who will later probably will be subject to different tests himself in the future. (They eluded to that in the film as well)

So what's the moral of the story here? Humans are assholes and don't truly deserve to live on Earth. I like that moral and that's one of the main reasons why I liked the film. Now here are some things I didn't like about it... The characters seemed a bit empty and I didn't care about them all that much. Kelly's dialogue writing was not nearly as sharp and witty as it was in Donnie Darko and it seemed like he was trying to make it that way. Also, the film looked like it was shot on video and then had a blurred effect put on it. Dan said it was shot on film but I still don't know. It really looks like video to me and video can be a hit or miss. If it was shot on video it was a miss for me. If it wasn't then I really didn't like the way the effect looked then.

Lastly, there was a scene toward the end when two characters who were barely in the film explained the whole movie and it was obvious that scene was in there just for that. Now, that's not new but it's kind of a cheap way of story telling and it was a bit disappointing. I understand that the movie is crazy complicated, so i forgive it for that part.

Overall, I wanted to love it but ended up liking it instead. Just glad I liked it WAY more than Southland Tales!



From Dan:

First off, let me start off by saying that Donnie Darko is an excellent film that should have gotten more attention than it did/has. Secondly, Southland Tales sucks! There, that was just to show you I’m not biased when it comes to Richard Kelly films. Although, I have to admit that I did have high hopes in seeing The Box. Thankfully, my expectations were met.

The Box is one of those films that you will have to go back and watch again. The plot gets a little complicated, but not the point where you have no idea as to what’s going on. I’ve described it to friends as being a sci-fi thriller, but it’s more than that. At times the film adds some intense drama and horror to its mix - and for this I applaud Mr. Kelly.

Like D.Darko, Kelly gives us a tale set in the not so distant past that revolves around government conspiracies, science fiction, murder, powerful scenes of panic, and weird ass special effects. All in all, these factors combined make for a winning movie. The thing that I really like about The Box is that is set in the 70’s. It would have been so easy to set the film in the present... or God forbid the future, but it just wouldn’t have worked. I actually feel that Kelly is in his element when he makes movies set in the past - Darko in the 80’s & now The Box in the 70’s. He gets these timelines because he’s lived them and, from what I’ve seen, really focuses on details to make his versions of the past believable (maybe this is why Southland Tales - being set in the future - didn’t do it for me). Not once while watching this movie did I have that moment where you see today’s influences/styles on what is suppossed to be a story set in the past. Visually the movie looks great and I disagree with Troy. The blurriness of the film works - regardless of it being shot on video or not. The look just adds to it being a story set in the 1970’s. It also helped with blending the special effects a bit more. I hate it when the cgi is so obvious - Kelly did a good job of avoiding this.

I also disagree with Troy about the characters. I cared more about the characters in this film then I have in Kelly’s previous films. Don’t get me wrong D.Darko is an awesome character, but I didn’t care all that much if he died or not. For some reason the two leads (the parents) of The Box got to me and this really surprised me more so because the two actors portraying the mom & dad really have annoyed me in their previous films. Cameron Diaz & James Marsden are the two actors that normally I just can’t stand, but surprisingly they’re good in this! Way to go Richard! They actually came off believable as desperate parents and there was just something about them that I wanted to see them succeed in the end. However, as good as their characters were I still can’t get behind their reasoning for pushing the box’s button. Troy already explained what happens - push the button get at $1 million then a stranger dies. To me they weren’t poor enough to justify killing someone for the million. Sure they had some minor set backs in their careers, but it wasn’t anything so drastic that they HAD to kill to get money. I mean the dad (Marsden) works for NASA - are you telling me NASA doesn’t pay good money?!

Anyway, this minor point aside, The Box is a great film that, like Troy, I liked and didn't loved like Donnie Darko. The Box is completely different from anything else you’ll see in theaters now, visually it looks awesome, and has now officially made me afraid of ever going to a public library again. The film is definitely worth seeing.