Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
The Box expands Richard Matheson's short story into a sprawling conspiracy thriller that bites off more than it can chew. The central moral dilemma is compelling, but Richard Kelly's screenplay layers on increasingly convoluted NASA/NSA mythology and paranormal subplots that dilute rather than enrich the core premise. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden are serviceable but struggle with the tonal demands of Kelly's peculiar vision. Visually, Kelly recreates the 1970s suburban aesthetic with some care, and there are genuinely unsettling sequences, though nothing approaches the inventiveness of Donnie Darko. The ending resolves the story in a bleak, mechanically inevitable way that feels more punishing than resonant, undercutting the emotional weight the film worked to build. A curious misfire with ambitions well beyond its execution.