Entertainment :: Movies
The Box by Padraic Maroney
EDGE ContributorFriday Nov 6, 2009 Morality issues are the trickiest ones to predict. The issues are not black and white and everyone brings a different set of life experiences to make their decision. In The Box a life and death morality play changes into the lives of a suburban married couple.
Set during the economic crisis of the 1970s, the film centers on The Lewis family, who (like many today) are living paycheck to paycheck. Things aren’t getting any easier as Norma (Cameron Diaz) finds out the tuition at her son’s school, where she also works, is going up and her husband Arthur (James Marsden) is declined entry to join the NASA astronaut training program.
They are honest, good people who are just trying to get by while providing for their son. When the mysterious Mr. Steward shows up at the door with an even more ominous package their lives are forever changed. His proposition is centers on a wooden box with a small button. He tells them if they push the button, someone will die that they do not know. However, they will receive $1,000,000 dollars. The money would offer them an escape and allow them to get out from the hole they are in.
After taking almost the entire 24 hour time limit to debate whether to push the button and allow their dreams to come true they push the button. Let’s face it - if they didn’t push the button there wouldn’t be much to the movie.
Raising a number of questions, The Box is that film that will leave you wanting to talk about it long after the end credits roll. Would you do the same thing? Is the million dollar prize too much of a temptation to holdout? No correct answer exists based off of the little information that the characters initially know.
The original short story, Button, Button by Richard Matheson, stops there; it examines just the decision whether to push the button or not. Director and writer Richard Kelly examines what happens when you push the button and looks further into where the box originates. Being that Kelly broke onto the scene with his reality bending debut, Donnie Darko you can assume that he isn’t going to leave the simplicity of the story the way it was.
But it is in the complexity that the film begins to unravel. The simple, straight-forward premise is made murky by trying to making everything overly difficult or murky. There are very few explanations to lingering questions - why were the Lewis’ specifically were targeted? Who exactly is Mr. Steward working for and how does he recruit his employees?
The Box is not a simple thriller. Mr. Steward, the man who brings the box into the family’s life, is working for an unknown employer. He was hired after coming back from the dead. The problem is that much like the Steward character, not enough is explained outside of the basic premise. Things like traveling through dimensions and mind control is briefly explored but there is not much substance behind the slick exterior.
One thing that is made simple is the time period. Trying to create a more classic thriller than what audiences are given today, Kelly gives The Box the feel of some classic thrillers from that time period. It also makes it easier because nowadays with the Internet, Norma would have been able to google the box and found out what the fine print on the offer was really. Instead it stays low tech and is better for it.
Cameron Diaz appears to be on a streak for respectability with her recent string of films that have been a departure from her usual popcorn fare. Here she tries on her best impersonation of the accent Anna Paquin uses on True Blood. Her performance is refreshingly understated -- even the obligatory dance scene there’s no butt shaking whatsoever. The acting here is probably some of the best work she has done since Being John Malkovich. Despite being only a year younger than Diaz in real life, James Marsden looks to be much younger than her onscreen. At times it is hard to picture the two of the married because of the difference.
At face value the question posed in the film is a simple one. Everyone has a knee jerk reaction as to what they would do. But until you are actually presented with the situation yourself, it’s hard to say what you would do. You just better hope you make the right decision because, as The Box suggests, it could be your life that’s on the line.
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