Reviews of The Box
Displaying all 6 reviews
Benoît
13May11
Découverte de Kelly et j’aurais dû commencer avec un autre film. Bon sang que c’est mauvais… La première partie crée une forme d’ambiance auquel je n’adhère pas du tout (notamment le coup du gamin qui demande à voir le pied de la femme ou son signe de paix soi-disant). Ensuite, la seconde part dans un délire de science-fiction largement tiré par les cheveux. Avec tout ça, que veux-nous dire Kelly? Que l"homme est mauvais par nature, mais tout est fait de manière très caricaturale. Le personnage féminin montré sous un aspect cupide uniquement (bonjour le cliché). L’homme qui pourrait devenir une forme de Messie. Et au final une chaine sans fin où un homme est prêt à en tuer un autre par appât du gain. Reste un trio d’acteurs convaincant, essentiellement Langella, charismatique.
- Currently 1.0/5 Stars.
Gino
24Jun10
I can honestly say this is the biggest disappointment of my teenage life. Coming from the genius behind Donnie Darko, I expected The Box to be one of, if not, the best Film of 2009. To say I was wrong would be a huge understatement. The acting was beyond terrible; Cameron Diaz was especially horrid in her over the top Virginia accent. The movie was painfully easy to figure it out. Literally, 40 minutes in, I figured out the entire movie and decided to leave and get a refund. The foreshadowing is extremely heavy handed and gives away the Plot entirely, leaving a Film no amount of intense Music could make suspenseful. I really would have liked it with better Actors and as a short Film- the cinematography was really good, but that’s all that was good. The Script was horrible, Characters ridiculously underdeveloped. It was a train wreck.
Amir Syarif Siregar
21Apr10
Richard Kelly mungkin adalah sebuah “kasus” khusus yang terjadi di Hollywood. Memulai debut penyutradaraan layar lebarnya lewat Donnie Darko, yang dirilis pada 2001, film tersebut diterima oleh kritikus sebagai sebuah debut yang memuaskan. Walau begitu, tetap saja film tersebut gagal mendapatkan perhatian publik, yang diperkirakan karena susahnya tema film yang ingin disampaikan oleh Kelly. Walau begitu, anehnya, secara perlahan, beberapa tahun kemudian, Donnie Darko mulai memperoleh banyak penggemar setia, dan digolongkan sebagai sebuah film cult.
Butuh waktu hingga 2007 ketika Kelly merilis film layar lebar keduanya, Southland Tales. Film yang dibintangi banyak nama populer tersebut masih dianggap membawa tema yang sangat sukar untuk diterima oleh umum. Sayangnya, kali ini film tersebut malah bernasib benar-benar buruk. Kritikus film dunia kurang menyukainya, para penonton dan penggemar Kelly juga sepertinya menjauhi film tersebut.
Di tahun 2009, Richard Kelly kembali merilis film terbarunya, The Box, yang dianggap sebagai film paling komersial yang dibuat oleh Kelly. Membawa genre thriller, naskah film ini sendiri diadaptasi oleh Kelly dari sebuah cerita pendek karya Richard Matheson yang berjudul Button, Button, yang sebelumnya pernah diadaptasi menjadi salah satu episode dari serial TV horror legendaris, The Twilight Zone.
Bersetting di tahun 1976, The Box mengisahkan mengenai pasangan suami istri, Norma (Diaz) dan Arthur Lewis (Marsden), serta anak mereka, Walter (Stone), yang akhir-akhir ini merasa bahwa kehidupan mereka seringkali menemui berbagai permasalahan pelik, khususnya di bidang ekonomi. Suatu hari, seorang pria asing, Arlington Steward (Langella), berkunjung ke rumah mereka dengan membawa sebuah kotak. Steward kemudian memberikan sebuah penawaran pada Norma dan Arthur untuk menekan tombol yang ada pada kotak tersebut dengan dua buah konsekuensi, seseorang di suatu tempat di dunia ini akan meninggal dunia dan mereka akan mendapatkan uang tunai sejumlah US$1 juta. Pertentangan moral dan kebutuhan hidup pun terjadi pada diri pasangan ini. Norma, dengan peretujuan Arthur, akhirnya menekan tombol tersebut, memberikan kesempatan pada Steward untuk menghadiahkan mereka uang tunai US$1 juta… serta sederetan mimpi buruk bagi keluarga mereka.
Satu hal yang paling dapat dirasakan oleh penonton ketika menyaksikan The Box adalah setting ‘70-an yang telah dirancang oleh Kelly. Tidak hanya dari setting cerita, Kelly juga memasukkan panorama ‘70-an melalui sinematografi dan iringan musik yang akan membuat Anda seperti sedang menyaksikan film-film horror pada tahun tersebut.
Dengan memasukkan sedikit unsur sci-fi di dalam jalan cerita, Richard Kelly lagi-lagi sepertinya akan sedikit menyulitkan para penontonnya untuk mengkonsumsi The Box secara keseluruhan. Selain cerita dasar mengenai pilihan konsekuensi hidup yang sedang dihadapi oleh pasangan Lewis, jalan cerita tambahan yang ada sepertinya hadir untuk menambah kerumitan dari kisah utama yang ingin dihadirkan. Hal ini sebenarnya bukanlah sebuah pilihan yang buruk. Namun mungkin penonton akan lebih merasa terhubung dengan nasib kedua karakter utama film ini jika saja Kelly memilih untuk menyampaikannya dengan cara yang lebih sederhana.
Dari departemen akting, The Box juga, sayangnya, tidak menawarkan sesuatu yang istimewa. Selain Frank Langella yang tampil cukup misterius dan menakutkan, dua pemeran utama, Cameron Diaz dan James Marsden, lebih sering terlihat kaku, datar dan kurang meyakinkan pada banyak adegan. Padahal, jalan cerita yang ditawarkan The Box dibuat untuk banyak bergantung pada peranan kedua tokoh utama yang mereka perankan.
Secara keseluruhan, The Box bukanlah sebuah film yang buruk. Seperti layaknya film-film karya Richard Kelly lainnya, The Box juga sepertinya ditujukan hanya untuk sekelompok orang, dan bukan untuk penonton secara umum. Walau begitu, bukan berarti sekelompok orang tersebut dapat dengan mudah untuk merasa bahwa The Box adalah sebuah film yang memuaskan. Menawarkan beberapa adegan yang menegangkan, namun lebih berfokus pada sisi drama, membuat The Box menjadi sebuah film thriller yang sepertinya gagal dalam usahanya untuk membuat para penontonnya merasa ketegangan tersebut.
Rating: 3 / 5
- Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
Valu2009
25Feb10
Smells like old fashioned sci-fi movies, Twilight Zone and stuff like that: as a matter of fact the story is the same – well, the first half – of “Button, Button”, a TZ episode based on a Richard Matheson short story. Great atmosphere, all is dipped into a seventies special sauce, costumes, lights, set design and the wonderful music score too. Kelly does better than in his previous works, the messy Southland Tales, but in the second half he loses control, trying to explain too much, with the result of confusing the viewer. Actually, the story is still interesting but maybe he tries to put too much stuff under the sun, but this is one of his main features, love it or hate it. Lovely ending though, and nice performances of the main actors.
- Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
Maicol Andrés Ordoñez
12Jan10
Richard Kelly writes with the camera the way one writes with a pen. His style is his, now we have to deal with it. The man is an auteur: one who never really grew up and read a shit ton of sci-fi/ mystical comic books. A high school Jodorowsky pop surrealist filmmaker. The textures and moods of the movie are irresistible enough for me to see it again for the marriage of the score and the images alone. This was a real treat.
- Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
jaredmobarak
13Nov09
Does anyone not push the button? What can I say about Richard Kelly’s supposed turn to mainstream cinema? Three things, and they are as follows: One, the marketing for The Box has to be some of the worst in the history of film. Warner Brothers is selling a completely different movie than what is shown on screen. This isn’t a thriller against the clock for a yuppie couple; it’s a fight for the salvation of the human race. Hell, it takes place in 1976 … bet you didn’t know that, huh? Two, how did Kelly get the money to make this thing at a big studio? Maybe it was the success of the most recent Richard Matheson adaptation, I Am Legend, but honestly, did any execs at WB read this script? It screams indie and it pulses Kelly, two things moderate budget has never been behind. And, three, this thing blew me away with its darkness, its bleak outlook on humanity, its deadpan, almost Lynchian characters, and its pitch perfect finale. Wow, I did not expect this at all.
I do not blame the studio for deciding to withhold press screenings. I’m not sure if that decision was made countrywide, but it definitely was for Buffalo, NY. Anyone going in expecting to see what the trailer delivered will leave, not only disappointed, but completely cheated as well. They won’t like the fact that you have to think while watching it, they won’t like the fact that the unexplainable occurs, and they most definitely will want their money back. However, if you are like me, somewhat intrigued with what a guy like Kelly can do in the studio system, you went in with marginally low expectations, only to be pleasantly surprised with the gem of a puzzle that he delivered. Matheson is not an easy man to adapt as one would see from the list of attempts. I myself have always been a fan of his challenging and intriguing viewpoint of both life and death. I think Stir of Echoes is underrated, I absolutely love What Dreams May Come, and I think Will Smith made the first half of I Am Legend fantastic, (haven’t seen the other tries at that source material). But it is in his short stories where most success had occurred, especially in his numerous episodes of “The Twilight Zone”. It is here where The Box finds its closest relatives.
Yes, the crux of the story follows a young married couple with their son, trying to scrape by paycheck to paycheck despite her being a teacher and him being ever so close to going into outer space. They do make mention on how they spend too much, and it does appear they live very comfortably in the mid-70s, but events begin to occur to make things even tighter. They were counting on certain assurances to get them by and even become more comfortable, but it all seems to unravel until a visit by a strange man named Arlington Steward and his riveting proposal. We have a cursory idea on who this enigma with half his face burnt off is because of a short prologue-like textual introduction at the start. It was a memo from the NSA in Langley stating that Steward had been released from the hospital and sent to an undisclosed location where he manufactured the button device given to the Lewis couple. It is part of the Mars project and it is unknown what his motivations are. The deal he brings—press the button and you will receive one million dollars tax free, only after someone you don’t know dies as a result—is a moral quandary that would give even the most well off person pause. Put it in front of a family looking for help and being manipulated into that situation, of course they will take the plunge.
I love the way the film is shot in long, deliberate sequences. Some scenes were so stark and methodical that I kept thinking about Kubrick’s The Shining. Mix in the supernatural and you come close to what is put on display. But, it isn’t cheesy in any regard and becomes very reminiscent of Kelly’s debut Donnie Darko, always hiding something more nefarious beneath the surface. The one fault I see is that while that film left everything to the imagination, The Box attempts to explain things a bit too much, leading to the problem of the general population feeling cheated by its absurdity and the intellectuals feeling pandered to and babied. Unfortunately, you cannot please one side without truly enraging the other, so Kelly does his best to toe the line, leaning towards the intellectuals, but in the end disappointing both sides. But, once we see the layers being pealed back on Steward, the wheels start to churn and allusions to other life forms, (Mars is a big background element throughout the film), as well as God himself crop up. Purgatory is a hell of a place to reside when the glory of the afterlife waits. Darko showed an Earth worth saving and the sacrifice necessary in order to do so; The Box shows a world where greed and desire rule, where we cheat and steal to stay alive, yet only prolong our own suffering from that final release. Two very different viewpoints, both just as beautiful, cynical, and engaging as the other.
And it’s all wrapped into some very fine performances from all the principals. James Marsden shows once more why he deserves a higher star in Hollywood, Cameron Diaz again proves that maybe she can act after all, and Frank Langella’s Steward is everything you could hope for with a wolf in sheep’s clothing role. Everything he does is part of the test, doing his best to prove why ‘life’ should cease to be, how its value is little more than worthless when compared to selfish gains. But the Lewis family shows him hope; they show him that maybe some people do see the importance of their fellow man. Rules are rules, however, and the test doesn’t stop until the button is reset and put into the hands of a new subject, (I don’t even want to broach the topic of what this film says about the female sex, something about a quick trigger finger indeed). It is tough to say too much without ruining the experience of the film itself. I’ll just finish by saying every aspect is great, from the acting, the wonderful 70s aesthetic, and the plethora of clues littering the backgrounds from the numerous bloody-nosed employees and their ever-staring eyes. Kelly is slowly becoming a director that I need to keep up with, I just hope his penchant for alienating the audience he needs to succeed won’t ruin his resolve and creativity.
http://jaredmobarakreviews.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/the-box/
- Currently 4.0/5 Stars.