For most people, filmmaker Richard Kelly is a one-hit wonder, thanks to his 2001 cult classic “Donnie Darko,” which has only increased in popularity and acclaim since its initial release, and is still the subject of detailed online fan theories.
Kelly directed just two more movies after “Donnie Darko,” and it’s been more than 15 years since the release of his last feature film, 2009’s “The Box.” Although he’s had various other unrealized projects in the works since then, it’s hard not to look at the poorly reviewed, commercially unsuccessful “The Box” as the movie that killed his career.
Yet to me “The Box” is more satisfying and more hauntingly resonant than “Donnie Darko,” with a clarity and focus that’s missing from Kelly’s second film, “Southland Tales.” While “Southland Tales” has found a renewed appreciation for its unhinged dystopia, there’s been no such critical reassessment of “The Box,” which in its own way is just as unhinged and just as incisive. Like “Donnie Darko,” it mixes sci-fi and mysticism for an unsettling view of the world as a cosmic enigma that the main characters will never be able to understand or control.
‘The Box’ takes a classic piece of sci-fi in wild new directions
“The Box” is ostensibly based on author Richard Matheson’s 1970 short story “Button, Button,” which Matheson himself adapted into an episode of “The Twilight Zone” in 1986. But Matheson’s elegant, creepy morality tale takes up only about 30 minutes of the movie’s nearly two-hour running time, and Kelly is less interested in moral lessons than he is in the horrific, unknowable nature of the universe.
In both Matheson’s story and Kelly’s film, there’s a clear correct choice that the protagonists should make when faced with an ethical dilemma, but in “The Box” it ultimately doesn’t even matter if they make the right decision, since humanity is doomed either way.
Set in 1976 Virginia, “The Box” begins with essentially the same set-up as Matheson’s story: A mysterious man named Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) visits the home of NASA scientist Arthur Lewis (James Marsden) and his schoolteacher wife Norma (Cameron Diaz) to offer them an odd, seemingly impossible deal. He presents them with a wooden box that has a large red button on top of it and tells them that if they press the button, they will receive $1 million, but a person they don’t know will die.
“I assure you I’m not a monster,” Steward says to Norma in eerily calm tones, which of course is something only a person who is definitely a monster would say. Just how monstrous Steward really is plays out over the course of the movie, long after Norma and Arthur have decided whether to press the button or not. Kelly throws in nods to the endings of both Matheson’s story and its “Twilight Zone” adaptation, but those simple stingers are mere jumping-off points for Kelly’s bizarre contemplation of the universe, against the backdrop of an impeccably designed 1970s suburban Christmas.
‘The Box’ builds a steady tone of dread and mysticism
One of Arthur’s favorite quotes comes from his namesake, legendary sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, who said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” That becomes Kelly’s guiding principle, as the movie shifts from the identifiable science of Arthur’s work with NASA on one of the first Mars probes, to Steward’s strange, seemingly magical abilities to control and manipulate human behavior and bend space and time.
Langella delivers every cryptic pronouncement and dire warning with the same bemused detachment, made even more disquieting by the facial disfigurement — the result of a direct lightning strike — that often obscures Steward’s expressions. Marsden and Diaz match his aloofness with vulnerability, which is especially poignant during a moment when Norma tearfully expresses empathy and solidarity with Steward, opening up about her own injury that has brought her pain and derision.
With its escalating absurdist horrors and meticulous attention to detail, “The Box” evokes both Yorgos Lanthimos and Stanley Kubrick, but Kelly has a style all his own. Like Arthur, he’s fascinated by pulp sci-fi, and while the story diverges wildly from the source material, it honors that tradition. There’s also a deadpan sense of humor to Steward’s increasingly elaborate plans, which are both terrifying and ridiculous — and more terrifying for how ridiculous they are.
That mix of tones may have put off viewers and critics in 2009, but it’s what makes “The Box” so endearingly, enduringly weird, and ready for rediscovery and renewed appreciation more than 15 years later. It’s a wonderfully unique vision from Kelly, and until we finally get another one, I’m glad it exists.
“The Box” is available to rent/buy at Apple and Amazon.
