A film that wants to be a morality play but can't seem to squeak past pedestrian paranoid conspiracy thriller, "The Box" is a major disappointment.
"Box" centers around a 70s-era 30-something couple (Cameron Diaz, James Marsden) who receive a strange gift on their doorstep: a wooden box with a button on top of it. Later, a visitor with a horrible scar (Frank Langella) arrives and tells them their dilemma: press the button, and you'll receive $1 million dollars, but somewhere, someone you don't know will die.
So they press the button, the cash is delivered, the end, right?
Wrong. You know something is going on, don't you?
In famous "be careful what you wish for" morality tales like this, there are always consequences to things like easy money, and that's true here.
Most of where this film goes wrong is in demystifying the origins of the box, and fully explaining what is going on. It comes off as ridiculous and more than a little silly.
Director Richard Kelly creates an odd vibe for the film that I assume is supposed to come off as creepy, but doesn't quite get there. Frank Langella works with a bad CGI scar, as does Diaz, whose mangled foot and resulting limp is part of a subplot that ultimately has little to do with the rest of the narrative.
The 70s setting is also an odd choice given there's no real compelling reason for it narratively (other than perhaps being authentic to the original story), and the loud colors and crazy wallpaper is off-putting for a thriller.
The film is based on a short story by Richard Matheson, which I have not read but assume makes much more sense than this dog of a film does.
DVD extras are hardly even cursory, with only a featurette on author Matheson included.
Film rating: 2 Yaps Extras rating: 1 Yap