Box of Moonlight is an idiosyncratic road movie about the spiritual transformation of an uptight and unhappy Chicago electrical engineer. John Turturro gives a convincing performance as Al Fountain who is working on an out-of-town project for Zeus Power Systems. The men he is supervising view him as a controlling and robotic boss. Unhinged by the discovery of his first gray hair, Al starts having hallucinations of events happening in reverse, such as a boy on a bike that is going backwards.
When the job is canceled, Al could go home to his wife and son for the Fourth of July weekend. Instead, he decides to visit a nearby lake he fondly remembers from childhood. It turns out to be polluted. While there, he is confronted by two Christian fundamentalists who want to save his soul. Back in town, some people claim to see the face of Jesus hidden in the imagery of a billboard. However, the catalyst for Al's soulful turnaround is not the Lord but the Kid (Sam Rockwell), a dropout who lives "off the grid" in an open-ended trailer surrounded by stolen garden gnomes and ceramic animals. This eccentric who hates the CIA and loves watching wrestling matches on television introduces Al to the pleasures of spontaneous play. They swim in a peaceful waterhole, cavort in a field of tomatoes, and spend an evening of revels with two local sisters.
Over this unusual Fourth of July weekend, Al gets in touch with the child inside and for the first time in his life senses the freedom that is the birthright of those who find pleasure and delight close at hand. In the spirit of his previous effort Living in Oblivion, writer and director Tom DiCillo has made another quirky movie that wiggles its way into your heart and mind.