October 30th, 2009 2:55 am

The Box

Richard Kelly returns to form with ‘The Box’, a truly mind-bending thriller with sci-fi spatterings that will test the average viewer.

Where do you begin with a movie like ‘The Box’? Well, forget the stunt casting of Cameron Diaz in the lead role; she’s just the cherry to get people who would not otherwise have given ‘The Box’ a chance the opportunity to see something like this. The name to remember is Richard Kelly, the helmer of a little movie called ‘Donnie Darko’ that’s become the cult coming-of-age-slash-sci-fi-slash-superhero movie of the last decade. He is the real reason to sit down to ‘The Box’.

Having blown minds with the mind-bending ‘Donnie’, his follow up was the stunted straight to DVD release of ‘Southland Tales’. Boasting a massive cast of people who had no idea about any of Kelly’s grand ideas, the film tanked majorly with its incomprehensible plotting, overcrowded characters and generally over-ambitious clashing of styles and genres.

If ‘The Box’ was supposed to be the movie where Kelly comes back licking his wounds after ‘Southland Tales’, there is little evidence of that here. What starts off almost rudimentary quickly dissolves into something much more quixotic, as Kelly brings out his customary bag of tricks. The premise; a struggling suburban family in 70’s America is offered a million dollars to press a button and in the process kill someone, somewhere on the planet that they dont know – is simplistic enough on the surface, but clearly no movie can hold up a two hour running time on such a thin device. There is much, much more, going on here than meets the eye, which also too becomes apparent in due time.

Kelly, penning the script from a short story that was adapted to a ‘Twilight Zone’ segment, applies layer upon layer of depth to the at-first shallow story. He makes it easy to feel confused, but its all rather superficial in many ways when you think about it a little more. The trick is that there really isn’t much depth at all, because Kelly has given us little to work with. Like the simplistic box itself, its the irrational fears in people that the box represents that is the point. Is getting rid of your troubles as simple as pushing a button? Not likely.

Kelly taps into an authenticicy that encapsulates the times this is set in; visually, tonally. His direction has uniformally been very good, even in ‘Southland Tales’ where things went a little nuts. Fittingly here though, ‘Twilight Zone’ afficionado’s will immediately see the homage-like execution, right down to the cheesy retro-horror scoring that has just works in its own nostalgic way. But while this looks and sounds the part, the simpler question is why?

Why go to all this trouble, creating a plot that has so many seemingly unncessary aspects to it, just to teach its protagonists the devestating effects their moral choices can have? Well, it comes down to personal taste really. Kelly’s fondness of sci-fi, human paranoia and the world of the unknown, runs throughout all three of his films now, and clearly its an aquired frame of mind. While this certainly has its sinister elements, especially in the final act, its confronting methods fit within the parameters of ‘The Box’s’ intentions without being as shockingly exploitative as something like the Saw series.

Diaz’ stunt casting is odd though. This is hardly the debacle that Southland Tales was, but in its wake its easy to see Kelly would not have been able to make this without someone big to attract studio backing. At times its hard to take her seriously when she struggles to take her role seriously. Her muted performance seems to fit quite often though so its not a total watershed. Marsden fares better, but its Langella as the shadowy stranger with an offer too good to refuse who’se restrained cool appears here effortlessly.

‘The Box’ isn’t sold on its stars though; its Kelly’s overly warped imagination that is really on show. He might have raised his own bar too high with ‘Donnie Darko’; ‘The Box’ isn’t up to that standard, but thankfully its a massive improvement on his misfired follow up to the D-wonder. As compainion pieces, you couldn’t find two better movies to sit side by side with each other.  Thematically, both exist in the same realm of hightened science-fiction awareness that is just pure indulgence for the sci-fi lover who wants something more challengeing to devour. But dont let the premises red herrings throw you; even though this is Kelly’s most accessable film, it’ll still be a challenge for those unprepared. Its definatly not to be taken lightly.