What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars...but simultaneously take the life of someone you don't know? Would you do it? And what would be the consequences? The year is 1976. Norma Lewis is a teacher at a private high school and her husband, Arthur, is an engineer working at NASA. They are, by all accounts, an average couple living a normal life in the suburbs with their young son...until a mysterious man with a horribly disfigured face appears on their doorstep and presents Norma with a life-altering proposition: the box. With only 24 hours to make their choice, Norma and Arthur face an impossible moral dilemma. What they don't realize is that no matter what they decide, terrifying consequences will have already been set in motion. They soon discover that the ramifications of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate.
Thoroughly enjoyable sci-fi thriller.....November 8, 2009 Jason(Batesville, IN USA) 37 out of 47 found this review helpful
I really didn't know what to expect from this movie considering the fact that Richard Kelly's last movie, "Southland Tales," kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. But upon the finished viewing of his latest film, "The Box," I think he has returned to the form that made me fall in love with "Donnie Darko." What a totally cerebral experience. A movie that jumps from a military experiment gone array to a noir thriller to a bout of existential looks at the causes and effects of free will and finally to a bit of theological looks at life after death. This movie completely and unequivocably held my attention throughout as any great director can do with a fantastic story. I've read quite a lot of reviews that just bomb this movie due to its confusing plot but I, for one, believe that this is highly enjoyable cinematic experience. I couldn't recommend this movie more.
Very provocative and mysterious--March 9, 2010 Judy K. Polhemus(Louisiana) 5 out of 6 found this review helpful
"The Box" is a metaphoric and atmospheric film, to say the least. That it is meant quite seriously becomes obvious through the deliberately serious acting by Cameron Diaz in a role unlike any other roles she has played.
A mother close to her son approaching his teen years, a wife faithfully bound to a brilliant scientist-husband who has not yet earned an elusive success, a teacher who inspires her students in non-traditional ways--Diaz plays each with aplomb, with serious intent. I always think of Diaz as the co-star of that Vegas movie with the handsome Ashton Crutcher and her partially fluff role. There is NO fluff in "The Box." This is a serious, even if freaky and strange, film about the nature of man/woman.
When faced with a decision to push a button (no alerts needed here because the premise of the button is shown on every advertisement). We know she pushes it and that someone will die, but we don't know the consequences. Consequences...Wouldn't you just know that pushing a button to get millions BUT simultaneously causing someone's death would have consequences?
The Prophet in the Old Testament warns that there is nothing new under the sun--that we commit the same ol, same ol, over and over. "The Box" shows us that premise so clearly. It's the Garden. Here's the apple. Obey or eat it? We know that decision and those consequences, but a box? With a button? Causing someone's death? Didn't Eve's decision cause Death, more or less? Metaphor. Life is metaphor, symbol, virtual reality. This film is just a reflection.
Diaz's character's decision is not arbitrary. We experience her day. We know she has this disintegrated foot which becomes part of the hallucinatory aspect of the film that contributes to the button-pushing decision. We know she is not a fluff character. This woman is a high school teacher who is discussing a Sartre play with her class when one of the students asks to see her foot. Oddly enough (as odd goes in this film), she removes her boot to show her foot. Cause-and-effect, cause-and-effect.
Frank Langella plays the messenger, the delivery man, the executive's assistant who was struck by lightning only to become an other-ly type of human. He works for an-other, the "Boss." God perhaps? If it's God, it's that God to which some attribute evil. A loving God would not force such a decision on his creation. Except--the concept of Free Will. I could make either case that Diaz has free will or is fated (because of Eve's long-ago decision, or even God's Will that humans be disobedient so that he can show the Way back to obedience).
Dear Reader, do you "get" that this is a twisted film, full of darkness but potential light, OR light until darkness (evil decisions) enters? We are born into a "box" of our physical bodies, we live in boxes (houses), we travel in boxes (cars), we are buried in boxes. Langella's character points out the box metaphor (easily discerned). Much like good and evil, the box reflects man's nature. Good or evil? Both? And the decision? It hasn't changed. Just the consequences.
Matheson coming into his ownApril 7, 2010 J from NY(New York) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
With Francis Lawrence's damn near perfect adaptation of Richard Matheson's horror classic "I Am Legend" and now Richard Kelly's stunning, Twilight Zone-like translation of the author's short story "Button, Button", we are at long last seeing an underappreciated, unjustly obscure horror/sci-fi/western author into mainstream film. Better late than never--his friend Stephen King has enjoyed this success (for better or worse) since his writing took off with "Carrie". Even that great film with Dennis Weaver, "Duel", enjoys only a fraction of the attention that King gets from simply penning his name on any film that comes around.
"The Box" has a general air of disorientation, metaphysical confusion, and immanent doom that many of the original Twilight Zone episodes had (many written by Matheson himself). Cameron Diaz is brilliant as Norma Lewis, a middle class mother who with a puzzling foot and and Arthur, a dedicated husband also brilliantly underplayed by James Marsden. Living lives of quiet desperation and hard up for cash to ensure a future for their children, they seem perfectly ordinary--therefore ripe for the pickings of a man (Frank Langella) who shows up at their door with a box, guaranteeing them one million dollars if they press the clown-nose like button within.
Langella's creepy, yet at times tender performance as Arlington Stewart, the "salesman" who most will undoubtedly think is the devil himself after things go awry, takes the cake. He is not what he appears to be and yet he is also not what does *not* appear to be--the decision is ultimately the viewer's. His "employers", whether they be God Himself and his angels or malevolent extraterrestrial entities testing the altruism of humanity in a kind of moral suicide mission, are certainly not happy with the human race. The ideals of Christian love, exemplified best perhaps by Norma and her compassion for Stewart's hideous appearance are also counterbalanced by something more ominous that each viewer will have to figure out for themselves. If one views the film as a moral fable solely, which would be sort of difficult considering the nosebleeds, the NASA component, etc, it would be thus: don't do something selfish for your own sake that will have a karmic rebound affect and immediately hurt another person. This is a gorgeous movie and a sort of full color TZ episode to end all TZ episodes. I'm sure Rod Serling would have loved it. Finally, Richard Matheson is getting his due. Unreservedly recommended.
The fall...July 13, 2010 Salma Massoud(Cairo, Egypt) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I saw this movie on the plane and I wished my flight was longer so I could see it again. This movie, for me, depicts the story of man. It narrates the story of Adam and Eve as we know it from the Bible (Quran has a different point of view about the story but I can get to that later).
If you have not seen the movie, please do not continue reading.
Norma and her husband are living a happy life together (Adam and Eve in Heaven before the fall). One day a stranger knocks on their door and lures them with a box that will give them a million dollars if they were to press a button in it (Satan luring Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden tree). The husband resists when he knows the other part of the deal: someone you dont know will die. But Norma keeps nagging and finding excuses why it is ok to press the button. The husband thinks of the worst (a child could die), but Norma thinks only of what can make her feel ok about pushing the button (it could be a criminal waiting for his death row). Again this is a depiction of the Bible's story about Eve being the one who pushed Adam to eat the fruit. Then, when the button is pressed, hell breaks loose (Adam and Eve fall from heaven to inhabit earth). Norma and husband are faced with choice after another, none of which is reasonable. The movie portrays that human beings are faced every day with choices that are all bad ones and we choose the one that we think is less bad. There is nothing that is good. Even when something good happens, it is shortlived and one doesnt have time to enjoy it (they took the 1 million USD an didnt get to spend it and enjoy it). Life is abo tests and unfortunately, it seems that no matter we do, we lose in the end!
My Interpretation of This Puzzling BoxApril 20, 2010 Z. Fu(New York, NY) 4 out of 5 found this review helpful
To understand the Box, one can either watch it again on DVD with subtitles on, or read my cliff notes below. I try to summarize it without giving away much details, which you the reader probably already know if you are reading this.
The moral choice, that Norma and Arthur face, has been the focus of much discussion and debate. Although it drives the narrative, it is merely the movie's starting point. The meat of the Box (also a sensible departure from Richard Matheson's short story) is the carefully raised possibility of aliens taking over major US government agencies (NSA, NASA, FBI and etc.) and conducting social experiment on humans to determine its viability as a species. This is the larger context which the story takes place in. It causes much confusion in the audience. It is however integral to an appreciation of Richard Kelly's intriguing work.
At the start of the film, US is close to finding evidence of life on Mars. Arthur himself works on the space program. The aliens (Martians?) sends one of its agents to inhabit the body of researcher Arlington Steward after lightning'd struck him. Alien Steward conducts a social experiment, the purpose of which is to determine whether human individuals are capable of putting aside their personal desires to do the "right" things. Logic follows that if they can, humans as a species have a chance for survival. If not, humans may be selected for extermination (before they reach Mars?). Aliens are able to co-opt local and central US government agencies. They after all would not be able to openly conduct their businesses without them. It is unclear whether agency heads are willing subjects or not. Aliens have the technology to do it either way. They can rewire human brains with a slight side effect of nose bleed. It is helpful to be reminded of the much cited Arthur C Clark's third law "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
I would comment on the library scene where Arthur is asked to select "salvation" and "damnation." It may seem a digression, as an earlier reviewer suggested. It is not. It provides the motivation for Arthur's final decision and more. His belief in reuniting with Norma in afterlife allows him to perform his final act. What is even more interesting is whether or not Arthur really saw afterlife or that he just thinks that he did. Aliens have the "water and light based" technology to make subjects to see whatever aliens want them to see. Aliens' "employees" are similar to the hypnotized acting with little self awareness. It is very likely that aliens tricked Arthur into seeing life after death because they were preparing Arthur as a victim in the next round of test. Similarly, Alien Steward suggests Sartre's Existentialism to Norma. Both theology and philosophy are hollow ideologies to aliens. They are merely two more tools for Alien Steward to manipulate the experiment subjects.
The Box is not a straight thriller like the Eagle Eye (2008). It is a cerebral experience that challenges our sense of reality, the like which can be found in quasi science fictions of Philip K Dick, Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon. It demands a second viewing with subtitles. I hope that the review helps.
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.
