The Box: Richard Kelly's Latest Materpiece?

The audience for the premier of Donnie Darko

In 2001, a film with a budget of $4.5 million but with soaring ambitions was unleashed on the world. Cinema would never be the same again. Philosophy, time-travel, bildungsroman, horror, mental health issues, romance and politics were all blended together to create a surreal and unforgettable world. The characters would linger on well after the credits rolled, and the haunting conclusion along with Gary Jules's Mad World would shatter even a heart of stone. The film was Donnie Darko and the director was Richard Kelly.


He's got soul, but he's not a soldier

Naturally, expectations were high for the next movie that Kelly was to helm after cult success Donnie Darko. And to many Southland Tales was a huge disappointment. It's essentially Kelly's ode to pop culture, but his ideas have got so big that a huge percentage of the film doesn't make a lot of sense. While Donnie Darko felt like something important and meaningful, Southland Tales seemed to be deliberately shallow. It was a convoluted mess. However, it had a great soundtrack including Muse and Radiohead. In the end, the most memorable moment is the musical number where strangeness occurs to the backing of All These Things That I've Done by The Killers. It seemed Kelly was finished. Nothing he could do would live up to Donnie Darko. The success of that film would seem to be a shadow over the rest of his career, and the critics would endlessly point out the failure of his new films to meet the Darko standard.


Arlington Steward (Frank Lagella) drops in on the Lewis family for some carol singing.

Then in 2009, Kelly returned. Rather than going bigger (nothing could really be bigger than Southland Tales) he's deliberately toned things down a bit. Gone are the large ensemble casts of weird and wonderful characters. Gone are the tangled time-travel related messiness. Gone are the endless references to pop culture that Kelly seemed to take so much pleasure out of (it started with Patrick Swayze and ended with Justin Timberlake and The Rock). All the signs seemed to suggest that Richard Kelly was growing up (he's only 37 now, bless him!). He'd even replaced the silly Arabic style font from Donnie Darko with titles for The Box that scream "I'm a serious film about serious people doing serious things, take me seriously!".

However, The Box is still a little bit silly, but that's what we loved about Donnie Darko. And The Box still hasn't escaped the Darko shadow. Norma Lewis (Cameron Diaz) is essentially a nastier version of Miss Pomeroy, the screaming teacher from DD. There's also a creepy book, which seems to have been illustrated by the same person as The Philosophy of Time Travel, the diagrams are almost identical. There's even a creepy teenager. And people laugh at inappropriate things, which I couldn't help but compare to Donnie getting the giggles before he was obliterated by a jet engine.

But I'm missing the point, The Box is a fantastic film. Near the beginning, the film seems a little simplistic. It's based on a short story, so I feared that much of the of the two hours would have to be padding. The premise is frightfully simplistic, push the button and you get 1 million pounds, but someone you don't know will die. A simple moral decision, but one which the grubby characters inevitably get wrong. But they don't quite realise what they're going in for. Some shady body, headed by the charming but sinister Arlington Steward (Frank Langella) is using the box as an altruism test to judge whether it's worth allowing the human race to continue living. He has the incredibly scary power of possessing anyone he chooses to spy on our misguided heroes.

Things start getting more and more convoluted, until the Lewis family are faced with a final moral decision that will involve the ultimate sacrifice. Along the way, we arrive at an idea of God being an extension of science that we don't quite understand and the somewhat Iranean idea of Earth being some form of purgatory. Human ethics are revealed to be based on Darwinian selfishness. Images of deformity abound, both physical and that ugliness of character that we try to keep hidden from our loved ones. Satre gets name-dropped. Oh, and Martian water has got something to do with it. So yes, Richard Kelly is still odd.

Cameron Diaz doesn't do a bad job as the selfish, yet fairly ordinary woman who inadvertently condemns her family to misery, although some scenes seem overplayed. Although you know she has to face punishment for essentially killing someone, you do feel a little sympathy for her. Her husband (James Marsden) makes a much better hero than Boxer Santaros in Southland Tales (who, like the viewer, was utterly confused by proceedings), showing the appropriate determination to make things right. But Frank Lagella steals the show as Arlington Steward, a villain who is both terrifying and heartbreaking.

The screenplay is occasionally clumsy ("What does it mean to know some one?", while being an interesting philosophical question, has no relation to the conversation the Lewis family are meant to be having) and the plot appears a little contrived at times (Arlington Steward sees it fit to describe his plans in great depth to an inquisitive subordinate, not the subtlest way for Kelly to convey his ideas). There are a lot of questions that are left unanswered, but ambiguity and mystery have always been key to Kelly's work. And [SPOILER START] after the death of Donnie and Boxer Santaros, it seems a little repetitive to kill off Norma Lewis as well, but I suppose Kelly is trying to conform to formal tragic structure [SPOILER END].

But I'm being pedantic. I really loved this film. It's nowhere as near as polished as you can expect from equally intelligent directors like Christopher Nolan, but it's infinitely more raw and philosophical, making it more interesting. This is a must-see for fans of Donnie Darko and Southland Tales (if there are such things as Southland Tales fans). It passes the test of any good film, it lingers in the memory long after viewing.

Richard Kelly's Ratings
Donnie Darko: 10/10
Southland Tales: 3/10
The Box: 7/10