A Mess of a Film

Arlington Steward: I have an offer to make. If you push the button, two things will happen. First, someone, somewhere in the world, whom you don't know, will die. Second, you will receive a payment of one million dollars. You have 24 hours.

Arthur and Norma Lewis are the average married couple who are working pay check to pay check spending more than they have. They get an offer from a man named Arlington Steward who offers them one million dollars but somewhere someone has to die. Norma and Arthur contemplate the issue and ultimately accept which sends them on a journey which no one expected.

The first 40 minutes or filled with deciding what was right and what was wrong I felt like I was reading a self help book on how to feel like I made the right choice morally. They went back and forth, tossing the idea of someone else’s death like it meant nothing. They discussed the fact that they don’t know the person, but Arthur looked at it from a different view saying it could be anyone, the neighbour from across the street, their own parents, a family friend. In the end after weighing these options and seeming like a genuine family Norma still pushed the button. So much for the back and forth Moral discussion, throw that book out the window. What happens next is clearly not what anyone expected. I was thinking it was some sort of creepy test but in the end in the grand scale of things it would just be one man working to make a point. How wrong was I?

They went way beyond just trying to convey a simple message of what is right and what is wrong. They brought into a whole lot of other things that drew away from the original “Box” test and threw the family for a whole other ride. In the end the film does make sense, it is just that Richard Kelly took the long way around and ruin his original idea of this just being a moral test.

I did not buy into Cameron Diaz’s acting. Her accent was terrible, her mannerisms were equally as terrible and her words seemed forced, like someone said she either did this film or her career was over. She didn’t even try hard at all, her lines that were supposed to solidify her character were flat, her decisions were not something we all couldn’t see coming before hand. Her character was nothing original and neither was the acting job she put forth. Not a good role for her to have taken on.
Arlington Steward: There are always consequences.

I was also heavily disappointed with Fran Langella. He also came up flat, his voice sounding dull and lifeless, when his character of Arlington Steward was the center of the whole mystery. Langella was the key piece to making this film come off as realistic and when he teetered on the brink of being that cheesy shadowy figure I began to laugh at the events that took place in this film.

There is much debate amongst fans on forums debating about what this film actually means, who Steward was, what the box represents and why he is playing this game. In the end I don’t think any of these debates matter, this film is an over developed mess of moral decisions weighing heavily in ones heart. The ultimate message of this film is that when we make a wrong decision we must be able to live with the fallout not anyone else. We cannot blame our choices on anyone we need to take responsibility and own up for the mistakes we make. This movie should have stopped after about 60 minutes and I really think it would have made a better short film then a feature length film that runs at almost 120 mins. Because what this movie should have done, which it failed to do is make us think about what our decision would have been in the same situation. It failed to do this when Kelly threw in all the back story of Arlington Steward, leave him as the creepy figure that shows up at the door, and focus on how the ultimate decision would have driven these people crazy without the added bits of the supernatural. The reason behind Stewards game doesn’t matter, he is testing these people and the moral message could have still been delivered if Richard Kelly could have at least made us connect with his characters.

Really not a good film, not at all what I was hoping it would be.


4/10