The Box (2009)

Released October 29, 2009

A strange man arrives at your doorstep with a box which has atop it a big, red button. If you press the button two things will happen:
(a) you will be rewarded with one million dollars, and
(b) somewhere, someone you don't know, will die.
If you don't press the button, you can return the box without obligation. What do you do?

This is the moral dilemma presented in Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's third feature, The Box. The hard questions, however, come in the consequences following that decision, since it is hardly a spoiler to reveal that Cameron Diaz as Norma, and too-pretty-to-be-true James Marsden as husband, Arthur, do make the seductive choice.

It's not long before strange and horrific events start intruding on Norma and Arthur's lives, affecting not only them but their young son, Walter. Frank Langella plays the strange man, his face disfigured a'la Harvey Two-Face. Intimidating but seemingly honest, his origin and affiliation is unknown. Kelly, who wrote the screenplay, cleverly refrains from explicit explanations and instead allows his philosophical ramblings free reign. Causality takes a back seat to theme, in which it is suprisingly coherent, with an ending manages to tie enough of a bow to be satisfying without feeling contrived.

Occasionally frightening and often suspenseful, your enjoyment will depend on whether you accept the premise and the morbidly humourless tone. Like other well-intentioned and sometimes provocative science-fiction films based in the real world such as Alex Proyas' Knowing, The Box treads perilously close to hokum, sometimes crossing the line, before being pulled back by the strength of its ideas.

Based on a short story penned by Richard Matheson and subsequently turned into a Twilight Zone episode, Kelly’s version, set in 1976, is as old fashioned as the original series. Rod Serling would have approved.