The Box

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a CIA internal memo being typed across the screen. It states that a man named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) has recovered from severe burn wounds and is delivering units related to the Mars project.The film then opens up in 1976 with Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) cuddling in bed and awaking at 5:45 am as the doorbell rings. Norma goes downstairs and looks through the peephole, seeing a black car drive off. Upon opening the door, she sees a package on her doorstep. Inside, she and her husband find a wooden box with a button protected by a glass dome, locked with a key, and a note, reading Mr. Steward will come at 5:00 pm. Norma and Arthur then enjoy a nice breakfast with their son, Walter (Sam Oz Stone).Arthur goes to work at NASA, where he works in optics, and helped in designing the camera on the Viking Mars probe. He finds he has been rejected from the astronaut program due to the fact that he failed the psychological exam.Norma goes to her job as a teacher at an elite private school teaching literature, where they are discussing Sartre's vision of Hell. One of her students remarks on her limp, after which she shows her class her disfigured right foot, missing four toes. After class Norma is informed by her boss that she will no longer be getting a discount for tuition and won't be able to pay for school for her son. Later that day Norma returns home and Arlington Steward appears at their door. Half of his face is missing. Norma looks at the clock and realizes it is 5:00 pm.Arlington says that if she or her husband pushes the button, someone in the world that they do not know will die, and they will receive one million dollars. Arlington hands Norma a $100 bill from the brief case of money, and says she gets to keep it if the button is pushed or not. Arlington leaves and tells her she has 24 hours. Arthur returns and Norma tells him what has happened.After much discussion about whether or not they should press the button, and some tinkering with the box (Arthur finds nothing inside it), Norma suddenly jerks forward and hits it. The button rises slightly.Arlington returns and presents Norma and Arthur with the million, without asking whether they pressed the button or not. He informs that they will not know who will receive the offer next, and implies that Arthur, Norma, or their son will be the ones to die. Arthur storms after Arlington and attempts to return the million, but Arlington drives off. Arthur gets his license plate number.A 911 call is shown, where someone has been shot. The police enter the house and find a woman shot through the heart, and a little girl locked in the bathroom upstairs.Arthur and Norma then attend a wedding rehearsal dinner, where Arthur is instructed to select a present from a table (secret Santa). A waiter (who happens to be the student of Norma's who prompted her to reveal her disfigurement), holds up two fingers to Arthur. Arthur then sees a box much like the one left on their doorstep, with the button in it. This time, there a photograph of Arlington inside.Norma's sister tells Arthur that the student Arthur saw was the one who made fun of his wife's foot. Arthur meets and asks Norma's dad (who is a police officer) to run the license plate number of Arlington's car. Norma receives a phone call (she is informed by a waiter whose nose begins to bleed as he's leading her to the phone). It is Arlington, who scolds her for allowing her husband to make contact with the police, as Arlington somehow knows Arthur has spoken to Norma's father. Arthur angrily approaches the student from Norma's class and yells at him for making fun of Norma. He then storms out of the party, with Norma following him. As they start their car, they see "No Exit" (the title of the Sartre play they went to see earlier) written into the frost on their windshield.When they get home, Arthur takes their babysitter, Dana, home. Dana had earlier gone down into the basement with their son Walter, to see Arthur's Mars collection. She notices the picture of everyone who worked on the development of the camera. As they are driving, Dana acts strangely, asking Arthur strange questions such as "Whats pushing your buttons?" and comments like "Look into the light." Her nose begins to bleed and she passes out. Arthur attempts to wake her up and finds her driver's license, which shows her name is not Dana, but Sara, and she is from Boston. He reaches the motel, where "Dana" has been staying and she wakes up with a start. She tells Arthur it's not safe for him there, and to look in the mirror because that's the only place with the answer. She then hurries away. In the motel, every door she passes opens and a startled looking person stares her down. She reaches her room, where she has a large map and pictures of Arthur, Norma, and Walter.At home Arthur looks at the large picture in the basement, and sees that Arlington (prior to his injury) is in the photo.At a supermarket, Norma is approached by a panicked woman who tells her to look up a certain call number in the library, and not to trust her husband, before passing out with a bloody nose. Arthur finds out that Arlington's license plate is registered to the NSA. He asks Norma's father if he can go with him to see the house where the shooting mentioned earlier took place. Once there, he finds pictures of Arlington and a picture of a Human Resources book, and a library call number. Arthur learns that the woman was shot at 4:45 PM, the same time Norma pushed the button.Norma and Arthur both visit the library, separately. Norma avoids Arthur, as instructed by the woman in the supermarket. Norma finds a film reel, which shows Arlington prior to his disfigurement. Arthur is followed by a crowd of startled looking people. He finds himself in a large hall filled with more scared looking people. He approaches a woman he learns is Arlington's wife, and she tells him to follow her. He is presented with three "gateways," made of hovering water. Two lead to eternal damnation, one to salvation. Remembering the student who held up two fingers, Arthur picks gate two. He enters the water and finds himself whirling through whiteness.Norma is also led by two hollow looking women to Arlington. He asks her how she felt when she saw his disfigurement, and she says she felt love, because of her foot. She says that she felt bad for herself because of her foot, and seeing someone with a face disfigurement made her realize she would never feel sorry for herself ever again. Many years ago, her brother had dropped a barbell on her foot and when she went to the doctor he put it in an X-ray machine and forgot about her, destroying the tissue in four of her toes. Arlington informs Norma that he was struck by lightning, and can now communicate with "those who control the lightning." Norma begins to cry and Arlington takes her hand.Norma is suddenly lying on her bed, with Arthur suspended above her in the same hovering water he stepped into earlier. Norma moves away just before Arthur falls out of the water. The water falls too, going all the way down their stairs. When cleaning up, Walter demands to know what is going on. Norma and Arthur do not answer him.More drama occurs and eventually, at the wedding of Norma's sister, their son Walter is kidnapped. Arthur is taken away by a gun-toting former employee of NASA. He is the same man who shot his wife, as earlier seen in the 911 call. He reveals to Arthur that he had to choose between his wife or his daughter. He asks if it was him or Norma that pushed the button and he replies that his wife also pushed the button. He shows Arthur the book seen earlier in the picture, and the water portals or "triptychs." The book is some sort of manual. They are then stopped by a man in a Santa Claus uniform, ringing a bell. As the two men are trying to figure out what is going on, they are hit by a large truck.We then see Arthur emerge from a NASA warehouse, which has been surrounded by military. He is taken away and told by his NASA friend that everything that happens next will have great ramifications. Arthur and Norma return home and see Arlington in their kitchen. He informs them they face two final options. Their son, Walter, is now deaf and blind. They can either live on with their million dollars, and their disabled son, or Arthur can shoot Norma through the heart, at which point Walter's sight and hearing will be restored and the million will be placed in a high interest bank account for Walter to be held in trust until his eighteenth birthday.We learned earlier in a warehouse full of startled people, when Arlington's minion questioned him, that Arlington's employers are testing the human race to see if they are worth keeping.Arlington leaves, telling Norma and Arthur on his way out that their son is in the bathroom, locked upstairs. The two of them run upstairs and try to get him out, but cannot because he can't hear them pounding on the door. They decide that they must make a choice, and Norma leads Arthur downstairs.Another couple is sitting at a table with a box unit, staring at it with contempt, wondering whether they should push it. The wife pushes the button. Arthur and Norma are crying and hugging each other, and say goodbye.Arthur shoots Norma, and the police arrive. He runs upstairs and sees his son is back to normal. It is implied that this process will go on and on.Arlington arrives at the other couple's house and hands them the million.Arthur's NASA friend informs him he and his son will be taken care of, as Arthur is escorted away by men in uniforms, who put him into a black car before driving off. Arthur's son looks down at Arthur leaving in that black car. Arlington then comes out of the house of other couple to whom he had given the $1 million, and the film ends.

Tags: boring, depressing, murder, psychological, mystery, violence, plot twist, psychedelic, philosophical, suspenseful

Review:
I can see how this movie wouldn't appeal to the masses, especially since it is a cautionary tale of morals and ethics, but if you liked Donnie Darko, you will probably enjoy The Box. I can see this having a cult following like Donnie Darko.Also I am not a Cameron Diaz fan, but I think she did a great job.
And if you've seen cult director Richard Kelly's previous films, "Donnie Darko" and "Southland Tales," you know that's gotta mean something.
Because for one, we get some spectacular performances (Marsden's great and Langella returns as a familiar creepy character), and most importantly two, because it's entirely original and Richard Kelly, undoubtedly one of the bravest directors alive, uses his creative vision to tell a story that dares to be different.
Be prepared for lengthy discussions with your partner however.*Note: If by chance you've read this review, taken my recommendation, have actually seen the movie and STILL believe you've wasted 2 hours of your life, I'd be happy to share my views on the whole meaning and plot of the film.
As a fan of science fiction allegory, social experiment, "The Twilight Zone" and the thriller genre -- no less all those elements combined -- Richard Kelly and his film "The Box" should've at least won me over, but it doesn't.
He later comes back and gives Norma a proposition: don't press the button and nothing happens, or press the button and receive one million dollars and subsequently someone, anywhere in the world, whom they don't know will die.Well, Norma, a teacher, just lost her teacher tuition discount for her son and Arthur's application to be an astronaut was just denied and despite living in a nice looking house in Richmond, Virginia they apparently have no money, so it's not hard to figure out ultimately what they'll do.
After all, don't press the button and there's no film -- not that some people who sit through this would've minded that in retrospect.As with his cult hit "Donnie Darko," Kelly keeps "The Box" fascinatingly creepy.
It's one of few saving graces for "The Box," but perhaps even this is only for those intrigued by high concept sci-fi mystery that parallels human nature no matter how vague.When any thriller collapses somewhere after the midway point, you can usually blame the fact that too many occurrences in need of explaining were written in order for the writer to achieve his desired end.
I have seen people say it was "hateful" or "they didn't understand the ending" I will simply say, a number of people just did not understand the film at all.I personally thought it was better than Donnie Darko, as Kelly went out of his way to be weird for the sake of it in that film.
If you like psychological thrillers that make you think (as I do) the first 29 minutes of this film will be for you - this is one of those films that illustrates the question that you always talked about on long car drives when you were kids like (what if you had to chose one family member live, another to die, or, what if you had to die by drowning or fire) This movie is a great concept - bottom line.2) The wardrobe group did a fine job with bringing us back to the 70's.
If you're board out of your mind, in bed sick, or have ever enjoyed being hit in the face with a pie, and can view this free on-line - by all means, go for it.If you need to pay anything to view this movie, don't waste your time - you're better off watching old Howie Mandel stand-up on You Tube.
That means not killing people, not going to war, not destroying the planet/ raping its resources for capital and actually uniting as people regardless if we know each other or not.This film contained this message and I am disappointed it obviously hasn't touched a majority of people here.One of my friends who said he would push the button was in the process of signing up to the Armed forces.
The couple begin to encounter zombie-like "employees" of Frank Langella's infinitely cool proposition-maker Arlington Steward and they become embroiled in a huge conspiracy which reaches beyond NASA and the NSA, encompassing the supernatural, the philosophical and the spiritual.This film contains about as much science fiction as Kelly debut effort Donnie Darko.
There's a speech made near the end by one of the characters that will leave you pondering over this fact, which governs the basis of the entire film, and even threading on existentialism, where our bodies are mere vessels for the soul, and from cradle to the grave we put ourselves in more boxes in a way of life fashion.What I disliked about the film, is how it tried to sound intelligent through the frequent name dropping of covert government agencies like the CIA and NSA, as though there's something overtly clandestine about these agencies that we should be aware of.
Having it set in 1976, against a NASA backdrop of manned space missions, and in Langley, Virginia, also provided that heightened sense of wary that will sap your energies as you sit through it patiently.Based upon the short story Button, Button written by Richard Matheson and made into an episode of the Twilight Zone, the story follows the Lewis family, where husband Arthur (James Marsden) works at NASA and develops a prosthetic foot for his teacher wife Norma (Cameron Diaz), and you'd think it's all happy family with their son Walter (Sam Oz Stone), until one day a mysterious man called Arlington Steward (Frank Langella in a Two-Face inspired facial effect) whom we are preempted of in the opening, comes knocking and giving them a Deal or No Deal button in a box.
Whether or not Steward is Death, a clandestine government employee, a messenger from God or a representative of Aliens after an anal probe, remains unanswered, so whichever way you look at it, it's as if he's delivering something expected, just begging that mankind will shake off its innate greed so that his work can be cut short and to return to wherever he came from.If you need a little distraction from the disparate scenes which make up the narrative, the production sets and art direction are gorgeous in recreating the 70s look, as you try to figure out the mystery of the consequences that stem from a result of not fully understanding the fine print.
Frankly I think the film is brave and thought provocative in terms of depth on a symbolic level--it certainly makes me think about some of the choices that we, as a human race, face and make in our lives.Other than that, the film does not have much else other than the acting of big name actors like Cameron Diaz.
in this film James Marsden and Cameron Diaz play a couple barely making ends meet who receive a box on their doorstep.they then receive a visit from a mysterious stranger(Frank Langella)who tells them if if they push the button the on the box,two things will happen.first, someone they don't know will die.second they will receive a million dollars in cash.of course,there is much more going on that that.this is certainly an interesting and original premise as far as i know.it's based on a short story by Richard Matheson,called,Button,Button.the movie certainly is thought provoking,and makes you think.i thought it was very well done.for me,The Box is an 8/10.
The Box presents its protagonists, married couple Norma and Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden), with a moral dilemma: push the button on the mysterious box delivered to their doorstep and they will get a cool $1million, but someone they don't know will die.
The Lewis's apparently bad decision condemns them to a hellish retribution that ultimately leads to a decision far more difficult than pushing a mere button.Anyone who has seen and been thoroughly confused by director Richard Kelly's cult classic Donnie Darko will no doubt be equally as perplexed by this pretentious, self-indulgent mess that had plenty of potential (it's based on a story by the excellent Richard Matheson), but which winds up being far less intriguing than its initial premise suggests.
However Kelly has managed to imbue the movie with a mysterious and unsettling quality that makes for an oddly gripping time at the cinema, and whilst I'm sure many people will disagree, I would consider it to be the best of his three films, and one of the more interesting and even compelling movies of 2009.Based in concept on the short story Button Button by Richard Matheson which was later adapted into a Twilight Zone episode of the same name, the initial premise of The Box is centred around a fascinating moral dilemma: Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) are a married couple with one son and growing financial difficulties who are visited out of the blue by a hideously disfigured man named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella).
From here we see Kelly's pen take over – he was also the screenwriter – as the story becomes an increasingly confusing mystery that branches into the territory of science fiction as the Lewis's attempt to uncover the true nature of Steward and his sinister "employers" before their decision catches up with them.Without giving anything away, this film goes to some truly incomprehensible places, and at times it does seem that Kelly doesn't really know what he wants to do with the story, cutting from one bizarre scene or situation to the next without any really explanation.
On an interesting side note, there are parts in the trailer that weren't in the film itself, so perhaps a more cohesive directors cut will eventually make it's way to DVD.At the end of the day, The Box won't be for everyone, but I thought it was an absorbing, unsettling and at times very thrilling film that proved for a memorable although not entirely satisfying viewing experience.
But it's also not an action film, it's closer to a philosophical discussion than action.To watch "The Box" you must be open to watching a movie that can't be explained, won't make any sense in most interpretations of it, and is slow-moving but thrilling and suspenseful at the same time.
If you liked Richard Kelly's most well-known movie Donnie Darko then you probably will still find The Box confusing and uninteresting.
You come to the conclusion that Kelly is not unlike the Wachowski Brothers when they did the last two Matrix films - making a film only for their pretentious self-supposing high intelligence.The Box starts off with the basic plot of Frank Langella's character leaving a box with a red button at the house of Cameron Diaz and James Marsden.
There a several directors working at the moment that I've promised to myself I'll always make an effort to see their films when they hit the big screens, such as Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams, David Fincher, Tim Burton, etc, but I can tell you I'll be from now on avoiding Richard Kelly like swine flu.It happens that I saw The Box on the same night as the first night of the Michael Jackson documentary.
Frank Langella on the other hand, was very creepy and frightening, and more or less ended up carrying the whole movie.The Box is director Richard Kelly's third feature film and it doesn't have the smart storytelling of Donnie Darko, but it is definitely a huge leap from Southland Tales.
Kelly expertly deals with each subject carefully and thoughtfully, leaving you absolutely speechless.Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, who play the married couple both give strong performances, and Frank Langella, who was nominated for Best Actor at this past year's Academy Awards, also gives a chilling turn as a sinister man on a puzzling mission.
But the flaws is what makes a Richard Kelly film feel special, as was the case with both his previous films, and that is the case for The Box.The performances from James Marsden and Cameron Diaz are superb.
But overall, The Box is another very interesting and very dreamy film from Richard Kelly, one that as years go by, will be sitting comfortably with Donnie Darko and Southland Tales on my DVD shelf..
I had actually strived to find good things about this movie while commenting, and yet all I can come up with is that I was mildly entertained through out for how incredibly horrendous, unpleasant and humorous it was, and that the twist and only the twist, while unsatisfying, kept this film from falling into the worst ten I have seen in my lifetime.Please, take my advice, The Box is not worth one cent of your money or one minute of your time.
And, as other have noted, there is almost a little too much explanation of what Langella's master plan is towards the end; as Donnie Darko showed us, what isn't explained makes things more intriguing.But The Box survives as a kind of underrated event of the month; for all of its paranoid moments and delusions of grandeur, it stays solid for most of its running time as a real science fiction film, and (as would happen often in Twilight Zone) a morality play, about what people are willing to do, and how death ultimately fits into it.
When I first heard the premise of "The Box", I was excited because I had seen the 1986 "Twilight Zone" segment "Button/Button" (that this movie is based on) and really enjoyed it.However, I was a bit apprehensive because the 30 minute "Button/Button" segment was the perfect amount of time for this story.
Don't waste your time on this dross, it really doesn't make any sense at all and will most likely leave you feeling that you have wasted nearly two hours of your life.The initial concept of this mystery is intriguing, but unfortunately that's about as far as this movie goes towards entertaining you.
It's almost as if the writer had the beginnings of an idea for a story and then got bored of writing it after the first chapter so handed it over to his 14 year old son to finish for him whilst high on crack.It's a shame because after watching the trailer for this movie I really was looking forward to it.Trust me on this, watch this film and you will be left feeling extremely disappointed and wishing that you hadn't wasted your time..
Richard Kelly is an out-there sort of filmmaker, something I liked about both "Donnie Darko" and "Southland Tales", even though neither one is something i'd call a good movie.
They have nothing on "The Box" though, a movie that begins painfully dull and just gravitates towards being pretentious and a misery to sit through.Taking place in Virginia, circa 1976, Cameron Diaz and James Marsden star as Norma and Arthur Lewis, a married couple who get a box delivered to their door, which is later explained by the mysterious Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), a man who carries horrible burns on his face after being hit by lightning.
Based on a Richard Matheson short story, it's about a couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) who are given a box with a button on it by a strange man (Frank Langella, continuing his lifelong quest of giving memorable character actor performances in genre pictures).
Just seeing his two previous films to understand that the "temporal fault" is an essential component of his movies: Donnie Darko takes place in the 80s, Southland Tales in a imperfect future and The Box plays out in the 70s.
This is a big problem for "the Box", because in a short time they try to tell you a story that is bigger than just the button on the box, they manage to explain the box but fails completely with the rest of the storyline.My summary of this movie would look like this: Introduction of the couple and their son.
All the actors delivered outstanding performances-especially Cameron Diaz, and Richard Kelly pulled off a movie as artfully directed as Donnie Darko.
Based on the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson, Richard Kelly's "The Box" starts off as an intriguing morality tale with a "Twilight Zone" flair, but the longer the movie goes on the sillier it becomes.
The catch is, though, that when they do that, someone they do not know is going to die.So far, so good, as the movie explores the moral dilemma facing these two obviously decent people who certainly would never think of shooting a stranger in the head for a million dollars, but who just might be willing to push a button with the same result if they didn't have to see the death they'd be inflicting on an innocent party in the process.
"The Box" is Richard Kelly's third time up as a director after "Donnie Darko" and "Southland Tales," and while I can't say I admired it quite as much as the other two, I will say that there's something about it that's just as hypnotically irresistible for me.The high-concept hook of "The Box" is that a young couple in 1976 (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) are given a box by a mysterious and monstrously-scarred stranger (Frank Langella).
I have to admit that The Box, a supernatural thriller starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who face terrible choices after pushing an innocent-looking button, is far better than I had anticipated.
The next day, a disfigured man named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) visits; he tells the somewhat incredulous couple that if they press the button inside the box, they will receive one million dollars in cash – but someone whom they do not know will die.It's an interesting conundrum, especially since it comes as Arthur has been denied is application to be an astronaut and Norma is being dropped from her college.