The Movie
Heavily embellished from a Richard Matheson short story, screenwriter/director Richard Kelly's big-screen adaptation The Box is a not entirely successful mélange of melodrama, thriller and science fiction. Set in 1976, with a backdrop of the Mars landing of the Viking probe, husband and wife Arthur and Norma Lewis (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz) face tough choices when suddenly offered a million dollars tax-free cash if they but push a mysterious button. Said push will take the life of someone they have never met, which of course puts them in the middle of quite the moral quandary.
This tale had been dramatized previously for an installment of the 1980s Twilight Zone starring Mare Winningham, Brad Davis and Basil Hoffman (who cameos here!), a tight and fairly faithful vignette. But Kelly has chosen to rewrite the central couple as his own mother and father, and add a creepy, complicated conspiracy to the mix, one that is never quite fully explained. Ironically, the results are somewhat slow and talky, much like an old Twilight Zone episode. But much longer.
The Picture
Shot on HD video, The Box is marked by what I assume is a deliberate softness, perhaps to evoke the period of the mid-'70s. I noted some noise in shadows and on some fine textures, but nothing too unpleasant, and out-of-focus backgrounds are generally realistic. There is however frequent streaking within the 2.4:1 frame, a consequence of its video origins, which did become something of a distraction across almost two hours.
The Sound
This is a solid if unspectacular DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix with some occasional punch in and around the NASA research facility where Arthur works. Both the extensive original musical score and the in-scene songs are deftly integrated to better envelop the audience. Discrete channeling of off-camera action is also utilized effectively, including some unsettling behavior of impossibly synchronized human drones watching, pursuing and basically being inexplicably eerie.
The Extras
Of particular interest is the five-minute interview "Richard Matheson: In His Own Words," one-on-one with the great fiction writer upon whose short story "Button, Button" The Box is based. The rest of the extras on this disc are exclusive to Blu-ray, beginning with the audio commentary by director Richard Kelly. There's also the eleven-minute featurette "The Box: Grounded in Reality" about Kelly's dramatic infusion of personal family history, three "Visual Effects Revealed" snippets (four minutes total) and a trio of Music Video Prequels (nine minutes total), which won't make much sense at all if you actually try to watch them before the movie. All of the video extras are in high definition.
Disc Two is a "Combo DVD" with the movie in standard-definition plus a Digital Copy for iTunes and Windows Media.
Final Thoughts
Matheson has rightly earned a devoted following and the faithful will surely want to check out this adaptation of one of his most enduring works. Would that this gross expansion was as satisfying as the original, but the audio and video are respectable and some of the bonuses are worth a viewing, so consider a rental.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Movie | |
| Extras |
