In 1976, Arthur (James Marsden) is an engineer working at NASA in the robotic research unit; he designed the camera used on the Viking mission to Mars. He has taken all the tests and is positive that he will shortly be enrolled as an astronaut. His wife Norma (Cameron Diaz) is a teacher at a private high school. Their son Walter (Sam Oz Stone) is a smart kid who attends the area's best school. But like many other families, this one is living beyond their means. And when Arthur learns that he has not been accepted into the astronaut program, he is shattered.
The answer to their financial straits arrives in a package delivered to their front door early in the morning. It is a simple box with a large red button. Later in the day, Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) stops by to explain the box and what is for. Norma is shocked by the horrible scar on his face. If they choose to press the red button, a person they don't know will die somewhere in the world. If they make this choice, they will be paid one million dollars in cash. If they choose not to press the button, Steward will return to take the box away. They are given 24 hours to make their choice and cannot tell anyone about the arrangement.
The Box is written and directed by Richard Kelly, the creative force behind Donnie Darko, the 2001 sci-fi mystery thriller which became a cult classic. Here he has amplified "Button, Button" a short story by Richard Matheson, a master of suspense. Kelly ambitiously touches upon many different film genres as he unspools the ramifications of the couple's decision to press the button and take the million dollars. We thought of today's pilots who drop smart bombs from planes high above their targets and have no idea of the destruction they are wreaking. In listening to Norma and Arthur's thinking as they put money and a secure future for their family above all else, we thought of the selfishness which has brought hardship to so many of us who lost lots of money by hoping to reap easy rewards in the stock market.
Once the deed is done, the couple want to take it back but that is impossible. "We just want this to go away," one of them says. That sounds all too familiar as well. Instead of taking responsibility for our actions, we want the terrible things that we have set in motion to disappear or be magically solved.
Arthur sets out to find out more about Steward and his many "employees." He discovers that he has been struck by lightning and is carried about in a car from a government agency. Could he be administering a morality test to Americans to see how they respond to greed and guilt? Or perhaps he is the middle-man for a band of intelligent extra-terrestrials who want to find out whether or not the human race has given up on altruism and is therefore doomed as a species. But the further he goes in his investigation, the more he bumps up against mystery. At one point in The Box, someone says, "This is all so mysterious," and Steward responds, "Well, I like mystery. Don't you? "
How you answer that question may hold the key to your response to The Box. In one of the most emotional scenes in the film, Norma says that her first response to seeing Steward and his disfigured face was a feeling of love. Her heart goes out to him for the courage and dignity to bear such a scar; she's endured pain and awkwardness of a disfigured foot that causes her to limp. Other themes touched upon are the freedom of choice which enables you to determine your destiny; the large role of boxes in our lives (houses, cars, television sets, and coffins); the validity of morality tests; the existence of heaven and hell; and the power of self-sacrifice. Another mystery at the heart of this drama is the way in which Arthur and Norma's marriage is deepened and enriched by the adversity they undergo.
The last third of The Box falters as too many themes are juggled, and a few incidents come across as phony. But keep in mind that this is a drama set during the Christmas holidays. We always complain about the too-muchness of the season with its odd mixture of gift-giving, parties, family get-togethers, exhaustion, and commercialism. The Box is too much but delivers many valuable gifts — insights into the mysteries of human nature, free will, responsibility, and compassion.
Special features on the DVD include "Richard Matheson: In His Own Words" - An Intimate Interview with a Sci-Fi Legend.
