The Box

If only I could judge The Box completely based on Frank Langella’s face. Sadly the missing chunk of his cheek was not the point of the film. There some nonsense involving aliens and testing humanity, I think, Richard Kelly never seems to be interested in a normal plot and The Box ends up suffering.

It wasn’t like I was expecting The Box to have a simple explanation but it would have been nice if it made sense or at least didn't involve aliens. This was one of those ideas that lost some of its intrigue when it was explained; the not knowing made it creepier. Still the entire movie was full of eerie scenes that Kelly is skilled at. The highlight for me was a hotel scene where a character walked down the hall and at every door a blank-eyed person would step out and stare. It just kept going and going and got weirder and weirder with each new person staring. If I could judge a movie based entirely on a handful of scenes, The Box would contain no faults.

Although it was nice to see James Marsden in a starring role in a serious drama, that was offset by serious Cameron Diaz. She is just too goofy for me to buy when its time for emotion. It in no way ruined the movie, because I was always paying more attention to the story and visuals. And Frank Langella’s face. I cannot say enough about how awesome he looked and how all his scenes were just off by a few degrees. Clearly the best performance in the film.

I highly doubt The Box will become a cult classic like Donnie Darko. This was Richard Kelly's attempt to make a mainstream movie and he just came up a bit short. His stuff is too weird and he doesn't feel the need to spell things out to the audience. Because of all that, The Box never really came together.

7 out of 10