The Box

The Box is the third film from director/writer Richard "Donnie Darko" Kelly, taking the short story Button, Button as a starting point it seems a married couple presented with a strange choice. Press a button on a box and receive $1m but known that someone will be killed. Or well, don't.

It's an interesting question to be set but sadly our suburbanites Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur (James Marsden) are not really fleshed out enough for us to ever believe it is a genuinely difficult choice for them to make. So the early premise of the film is quickly done with and the button is pushed.

For here things get increasingly bizarre as the consequences for pushing the button become increasingly outlandish, it is a shame as the film does climax on a genuinely nightmarish choice for the young family but the route taken to get there is so daft it has stripped away all credibility by the time you get there. However to say what this course is would be spoilerish in the extreme and I suspect fun can be gleamed from the film in a first viewing by sheer disbelief of the events.

I do wonder though if this could have been made much better by being much gritter and more grounded. If it simply was built around a series of escalating choices I think it would have been an excellent little thriller. I can't help but think it would have been good material for the likes of David Fincher whose 'The Game' has certain traits in common.

It seems Kelly can't resist the surreal and bizarre though and it is fair to say there are still similarities with 'Donnie Darko' here. He still shows the odd bit of flair and the 70's setting is well realised but he is straining to hard to be different. Increasingly sadly it looks like he first feature will be a flash in the pan as this third outing is even more disappointing than the sprawling mess that was 'Southland Tales'.