Synopsis
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
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Cast
- Cameron DiazNorma Lewis
- James MarsdenArthur Lewis
- Frank LangellaArlington Steward
- James RebhornNorm Cahill
- Holmes OsborneDick Burns
- Sam Oz StoneWalter Lewis
- Gillian JacobsDana
- Celia WestonLana Burns
- Lisa K. WyattRhonda Martin
- Mark S. CartierMartin Teague
- 75
Miami Herald
The Box is a mess, but it's a curiously haunting, intriguing, brain-tickling mess, and it delivers that "Donnie Darko" feeling in truckloads. Or should that be rocketloads? - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
This movie kept me involved and intrigued, and for that I'm grateful. I'm beginning to wonder whether, in some situations, absurdity might not be a strength. - 60
Film Threat
The revelation of the film's mystery just barely makes sense. Yet, we dismiss it as an extended MacGuffin, and thus can delight in the film's devious turns. - 50
Variety
Kelly's trademark mix of sci-fi, surrealism and suburbia occasionally entertains. - 50
Rolling Stone
What a shame that Kelly's pacing doesn't run as fast as his imagination. Instead of sweeping you along, The Box just sits there like something unclaimed at lost and found. Damaged goods. - 50
The New York Times
Sincere and sinister and inevitably ambitious, a serious work that insists on its own seriousness even when it edges toward the preposterous. - 50
Salon
Kelly is devoted to telling his stories visually -- except when he's not. And the second half of The Box, unfortunately, underscores everything Kelly, as a filmmaker, wants to be and just can't. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
An artistic fiasco that cuts across genre lines and all logic to become, perhaps, an instant midnight movie.