The Box

When the nicest thing that can be said about The Box is that it isn’t quite as bad as Kelly’s previous film; Southland Tales, things don’t bode well. It is a tremendous and tragic fall from grace from the apparent visionary behind the cult-hit; Donnie Darko. In perhaps one of the most interesting unravelling-of-a-Hollywood-career stories, the consensus now seems to be that Donnie Darko was a fluke and Richard Kelly is a busted flush. Not because he was denied opportunities to fulfil his creative visions, but because he has mercilessly squandered them.

The Box is a mess from start to finish. An interesting initial premise is lost through a convoluted and preposterous plot that makes little attempt at coherence. About a third of way through, some interesting revelations and surreal occurrences give a glimmer of almost Lynch-esque mystery and misdirection. However the narrative ultimately collapses under the weight of its own ridiculousness.

Frank Langella’s performance is mildly unsettling, his disfigurement is fairly shocking at first but after we’ve marvelled at the technological feat of creating it, the novelty quickly wears off. How an actor of such standing and ability ended up in this film is hard to fathom.

It doesn’t give much away to say that the red button is pressed close to the start as what takes place next and for the majority of the film is as a direct result of this. Up to the moment that Cameron Diaz’s character pushes the button, there is an air of intrigue, a moral dilemma, even some fine acting. The second it is pressed – not 15 minutes in to the film, everything unravels and silly, silly things start to happen. Aliens, the devil, god, NASA, CIA, NSA, portals, mind control and nose bleeds are thrown into the mix as if someone was making the world’s most confused cake, badly.

However, this particular cake is more of a sticky blancmange that fell apart in the cooking process and came of the oven dead on arrival. The outcome of the final “moral dilemma” in the closing minutes of the film betrays Kelly’s membership of the white, middle-class American mainstream despite his faux attempts at ‘indie’ subversiveness. His heroes would rather die than deal with disability because they are locked into his extreme conservative mindset that will not and can not tolerate or understand disability and difference. Obscene and unforgivable.

Avoid at all costs.

Last edited: 10th April 2010