The Box

Plot synopsis:
In December 1976, a financially strapped couple, Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) find a package on their doorstep. Inside is a locked wooden box, with a transparent dome top and large red button visible underneath. An accompanying note reads: "Mr. Steward will call upon you at 5:00 pm". They leave it in the kitchen.
At 5:00 pm, Mr. Steward (Frank Langella), a mysterious man with the left side of his face burned off, arrives to deliver a key to the box. He tells Norma that, if the button is pushed, he will give her a tax free payment of $1 million in cash. However, someone she does not know will die. Arthur, a NASA engineer, disassembles the box to find only a button and nothing under it.
Later, Norma and Arthur have ethical and moral arguments about pushing the button, wondering whether a young and innocent person, or a person on death row will die. Norma impulsively decides to push the button, and does it quickly before her husband can stop her. Simultaneously, miles away, a man shoots his wife to death and then flees, leaving their daughter locked in the bathroom. Police are perplexed as to why Jeffrey Carnes (Ryan Woodle), a NASA employee like Arthur, killed his wife, because they had a happy relationship.
At Norma's sister's wedding rehearsal, Arthur wins a chance to select a gift from presents provided by the dinner guests. A plain brown box exactly like his and Norma's is among them. Arthur opens it to find a photo of Steward before the disfigurement. Arthur asks Norma's father, a police officer, to run the license plate number of Steward's car. Shortly after, Norma is asked to take a phone call at the wedding rehearsal. The call is from Mr. Steward who asks why her husband is having his car license plate run by the police department. Norma asks Mr. Steward how he knew this, and he warns her that he has employees everywhere.
Later on, Arthur drives the babysitter (Dana) home. She tells him she is living in a motel because her family is moving, but their new house is not ready to move into yet. As he is driving, she begins to ramble and tells Arthur to "look into the light" and asks if "somebody is pushing his buttons." Her nose begins to bleed and she passes out just as he is approaching the motel. Arthur pulls into the motel parking lot and sees her ID, which states that her name is Sarah Mathews, not Dana. She suddenly wakes and rushes into the motel. In her room, she has surveillance photographs of Arthur and his family all over the walls. It is obvious she is not who she says she is. Once back home, Arthur asks Norma how she met the baby-sitter; she said on a tour of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Later, while in the supermarket, Norma is approached by a woman who tells her to look up a certain call number in the library and not to trust anyone, not even her husband. The woman, who was the inquisitive journalist at a conference Arthur was present at earlier on, also passes out with a nose-bleed. Norma's father discovers Steward's car is registered to the NSA and allows Arthur to visit the Carnes home crime scene. Arthur finds pictures of Steward and a Human Resource Exploitation Manual along with a library call number.
Norma and Arthur separately visit the library. Arthur approaches Steward's wife (Deborah Rush), who leads him into a room with three upright cuboids of water. Two will lead him to eternal damnation, while the other leads to salvation. Arthur enters one and he vanishes, while Steward's wife leaves the library alone. Norma is led by two women to Steward and has a discussion about how he had gotten his facial disfigurement as a consequence of being struck by lightning while working at NASA. He causes her nose to bleed and she passes out. She finds herself back at home upon her bed. Above her, Arthur emerges within a rectangular cube of water and he is flushed out and falls on her. They both leave in shock and prepare for the wedding reception which is that evening.
Back at the NSA, the NSA chief and Arthur's boss at NASA discuss Steward. The chief tells Arthur's boss Steward is "something else." When Steward was struck by lightning, he died, but at the morgue, a nurse heard Steward laughing. His body supernaturally regenerated; he was transferred. The NSA chief and Steward discuss the "box and button."
At the wedding reception of Norma's sister, Arthur and Norma's son Walter (Sam Oz Stone) is kidnapped. Arthur is forced to leave at gunpoint, by Jeffrey Carnes, who reveals that he had been forced to choose between his wife or daughter, and also informs him that they have to save Walter or Norma will die, and that he will kill her if they do not save him. Carnes is forced to stop his car by a man dressed in a Santa costume standing in the road. The car is then hit by a truck, knocking Arthur and Jeffrey unconscious.
Meanwhile, NSA employees round up large groups of people, including Arthur and Walter. Steward oversees the process. Steward's boxes are an experiment to judge whether a majority of individual members of the human race will put other lives before any personal gain. If a majority push the button, the human race will be exterminated. All the test subjects are couples under 40 years of age with one child.
Steward offers Arthur and Norma a final choice. Walter is now deaf and blind. They can either live on with $1 million and a disabled son, or Arthur can shoot Norma through the heart, at which point Walter's sight and hearing will be restored and the $1 million in a trust fund for him. Norma begs Arthur to shoot her. Elsewhere, a woman pushes the button on her box and Arthur shoots Norma, killing her. As Arthur is taken away by police, Steward leaves the other couple's house with the box. Walter is shown through an upstairs window in the home with his grandfather (Holmes Osborne). The final scene shows Steward standing in the snow by his car, parked in a street, with the box.

Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder, flashback

Review:
Great Debut from 1st time director Kparr.
A friend of mine saw this at the San Diego Film Festival and told me about it and that Giancarlo Esposito was in it (a very underrated talent).
For Esposito alone, I picked it up and I was quite pleased.
I like what the first time helmer Kparr did with a relatively unknown cast, except for Esposito and Gabrielle Union (who I was extremely surprised, but I'll speak on her later).
The story was a solid crime, thriller.
I know hardcore film geeks, who live to pick stuff apart will try to find flaws, but hell American Gangster had flaws, with two Oscar winners in front the camera and another who scribed that "celluloid gold".
Being that this flick was working with a handful of sets, I dug the look.
And as far as performances, the guy playing Kamen and the guy playing Danny were standouts (I want to see more of them), Esposito (always on point) and Yul Vasquez was good, the guy playing Tommy kind of phoned it in, but the biggest surprise for me was Gabrielle Union.
The director made a daring bit of casting with Gabrielle Union as a tough as nails policeman.
I know her as the spunky cheerleader or the sexy siren that Morris Chestnut or Taye Diggs is running after in a flick, but this role I'd never see her playing, but she rocked it.
Actors have defining roles in their careers and right now in her somewhat young career this is it.
I give this director much credit for getting that performance and writing a solid story.
I want to see has next in store..
This Box Is Empty.
This Box Is Empty.
"The Box" begins with flashes of gunfire inside a house and a police unit moving into position.
Inside the house, the cops discover a stack of bodies and two survivors amongst the carnage.
The first is the quiet Finn Williams (Yul Vasquez) who had been enjoying an evening with his friends, one of whom was looking after the house for its owner.
The second is Danny Schamus (A J Buckley) who had been one of three men who had invaded the house with loaded weapons in search of the titular box.
The two survivors are then interrogated by Detectives Romano (Gabrielle Union) and Burkhalter (Giancarlo Esposito) as to what actually happened.Despite similarities to "The Usual Suspects" in both its structure and the way it plays with fact versus fiction, "The Box" is ultimately let down by its mediocre script (which relies on a LOT of annoying coincidences) and flat, boring direction.
It has the spark of a good idea as the audience is given two depictions of events and invited to choose which - if either - is correct.
However, the plot simply isn't strong enough to carry its running time (I started checking my watch around the hour mark) and is hindered by such awful scenes as a couple lying upon a bed as slushy romantic music plays around them.
The resolution also decides to throw as many plot twists at the audience as possible and hopes that some of them stick.
They don't.The actors, on the whole, are fine with Max Ryan giving the best performance of the movie as the unhinged Ray Kamen who leads the three home invaders (the scene where he begins hopping around a room like a bunny rabbit in front of a man he's torturing manages to be both funny and unnerving at the same time).Overall, "The Box" is annoying because it had the potential to be a lot better.
I found it less entertaining than an episode of "C.S.I", and it was instantly forgettable afterwards.
Instead of renting this movie, I'd recommend watching "The Usual Suspects" instead (even if you've already seen it) or perhaps "Lucky Number Sleven".
This box isn't worth opening..
OK For A Boring Evening.
This movie is so full of twists.
Every ten minutes it seems there is a new story about how the event happened.
One thing I did like is the way the movie got it's title was explained near the end so that was one thing I didn't have to wonder about.
The actors were OK but the direction was just average.
At the end I am still am confused.
Oh You know where all the characters fit into the story but the ending failed to tie all the strings together.
It was a movie that ended just before the story was over.
It seems today several movies have ended that way.
It's almost as if they are planning for a second part in another movie.
I can say this much about the plot.
Like so many dramas the motive is greed and you won't see who's greed it was, coming.
One viewing was enough, twice would be way to much..
More holes and twists than a curly wurly !.
only very slight spoiler (if you could even call it that) Many versions of the same robery from witness accounts or police summaries, many do not make any sense what so ever, the premise is good, but if you can apply rational to the storyline you are given, the holes become like a cartoon cheese.
once they have done with the ridiculous possibilities then they start adding the twists, and you start asking yourself, well if they already knew that guy then how come yada yada yada...
this goes on through the entire second half and the entire film gets ruined, why is it American films just cannot "do" twists, they either give that many clues you'd have to be blind deaf and dumb not to see it coming, or in the case of this film, make them so absured they stretch the boundaries of logic.
by the end of the film its a surprise that everybody wasn't on first name terms and schooled together.
ridiculous describes the story...
Ambitious but clumsy "Rashomon" wannabe.
Yes, it's the old "same event told from various different perspectives" device, this time updated to an urban, excessively profane, and fairly low-budget version.
It is quite ambitious and daring for a first-time writer-director (A.J. Kparr) to tackle this concept, however the film is spoiled by amateurish acting in some of the supporting parts (especially a bouncer-like guy who has pretty poor diction and is hard to understand at times), and by Kparr's own insistence to add twist upon twist upon twist to the point where nothing hangs together anymore.
Still, I watched "The Box" twice without being bored, and I would be interested to see Kparr's next project.
** out of 4.P.S. They tried to downplay Gabrielle Union's beauty for this "serious" role, but it didn't quite work: she is still amazingly beautiful.