Review of “The Box”
“The Box,” starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella, was a quasi-effective look at morality in modern society. This film does try to explore some ethical issues and succeeds, but to a limited extent. Diaz’s character is one the audience can sympathize with, but also one the audience questions the judgement of. Marsden’s character is a little more interesting and dynamic, but still suffers much of the same characterization pitfalls as Diaz’s character (both question pressing the button instead of flat-out rejecting to press it). This then brings us to Langella’s character, a mysterious deformed salesman who seems a little too unattached to the people he “sells” the box to.
The movie starts out with a view of typical suburban life for the Lewis family, particularly during Christmas time. Then Norma Lewis (Diaz) recieves a strange package on her doorstep. Soon after the exposition, the film takes off and morphs into a drama/thriller/sci-fi movie, complete with slightly confusing storyline and surprising plot twists. The audience soon learns that Langella’s character is working for “those who control the lightening” and thus is taking part in conducting an experiment in ethics involving the human race. If the humans are selfish and press the button that grant them one million dollars AND kill someone whom they don’t know, then the human race is to be exterminated. Fortunately, the movie is left at a sort of “cliff-hanger” which allows viewers to decide for themselves whether or not mankind can redeem itself. The promise of redemption is a thought that plague’s Norma in the film after she presses the button and finds out the consequences of doing so, and both her and her husband wish for everything to go back to normal, which in turn inspires Langella’s character to have respect and admiration for them.
The moral “lessons” of the story seems to be that a human life has no price. This “lesson” is taken well above and beyond during the film until it is a tiresome necessity of the story’s plot line. Interestingly enough, it’s always the wife who presses the button, so there are subtle hints of the story of Adam and Eve, where Eve doomed mankind by eating the forbidden fruit. Thankfully, Diaz’s character learns that she made a huge mistake and is willing to end her life to save her son (the only selfless thing she has done the whole movie). Unfortunately, this leaves Marsden’s character in a bind, considering he has to shoot his wife in order to restore his son’s hearing and vision, and in so doing, has to go to jail.
The strange parts of this movie occur when Diaz’s character is teaching and is humiliated by a student, and when both Diaz and Marsden are in a records building/library and Marsden is transported back home in a tall column of liquid. The obvious science fiction elements don’t lend much to the story besides heightening the superfluity of having them in there in the first place. If all the sci-fi elements were taken out, as well as the action sequences, then this movie could lend itself well to a stage play. The most compelling parts of the storyline are the family issues and the question of ethics, which could be taken more in-depth and converted to a dramatic adaptation for stage.
Overall, I would give this movie 3/5 stars since the plot line was a bit confusing to follow, what with all the random details added in (seemingly on a whim), and because the acting is so-so. I would still encourage you all to see this film because of the general message it tries to convey. But don’t take my word for it! Go see it for yourself!
