The Box
Wow, so I’m finding The Box a difficult movie to really know how/what I feel about it. I left the cinema slightly bemused as to what I had just seen, had the previous 2 hours been a complete waste of time or was it genius….
As I sit here the morning after the night before trying to write some kind of review I’m still in the same position.
The Box follows a relative normal family who are visited one day by a mysterious man who brings them a box with a button in it They are told if they push the button two things will happen 1. Someone they don’t know in the world will die, 2. They will get 1 million dollars…
So there are some really interest moral dilemmas to discuss in that situation and to be honest that should have been the movie right there, but it’s not. The decision is made far too early on in the plot and what then unfolds is a story that twists and turns but with out any particular focus or direction (trying not to give too much away!). The Box is an odd and confusing movie which is why I’m still left wondering how I actually feel about it. I’m currently thinking ‘it was a load of rubbish and should have been more about moral decisions, etc. rather than over complicated, drawn out, sci-fi rubbish’ but I think it will be a movie that divides audiences and I think, much like Marmite, some will love it and some will hate it.
I feel the decision to go and see the movie is similar to the decision the couple have to take. Do you 1. Push the button, go see the movie, prepare for the confusion that could unfold and then try and piece it altogether or 2. Don’t push the button, run as far away from this movie as possible concluding ‘Probably not my kind of things, sounds a bit wierd!’. The choice is yours….
5
Tim Webley (Trev's mate from work)
16th December 2009
18:12
Spoiler alert!!
Yo, Paul. Much the same conclusion from my camp too. I didn’t quite understand the choice of water chambers and the mess it made of the bedroom bit, or whether Diaz won any brownie points for her love/sympathy face/foot comparison? Was the kid in bathroom double-cross unfair or was it me? He didn’t mention that bit when he turned up with the cash.
Paul
16th December 2009
18:30
Totally agree!
Thought the foot thing was going to be of some relevance but apart from meaning she knew how he felt with his burnt face they did nothing with it. All the weird water chambers, kid decision/double crossing seemed to be to bulk out the film because they ‘decided’ to early on and then the director must have gone, ‘oh no we’ve got another hour to fill to make a proper length film!’