movie review for The Box

The premise of this movie is a pretty disturbing one. It is based in 1976. A couple in their mid-thirties is living in Richmond, Virginia. The wife played by Cameron Diaz is a school teacher. The husband works for NASA. They have a son. The wife learns that the faculty tuition benefit at the school is ending and their son will no longer be able to attend the school she works at under the discount. She is devastated and senses that her husband will be as well.

That same day, she is visited by a Mr. Steward who entices her to press a button in a box. He shows her 1 million dollars cash in a briefcase and assures her that the money can belong to her and her family if she presses the button. If she presses the button, someone whom she does not know will also die.

The woman decides to discuss the proposition with her husband. They have 24hrs to act before the offer is rescinded. Her thoughts are selfishly leaning toward getting the million dollars and being out of debt even though she would be responsible for the death of another person.

The couple decides to take the offer and they suffer tragedy, peril, karma afterward.

Mr. Steward is a former NASA employee who was struck by lightning and went on to have "remarkable powers". The movie takes the sci fi approach of Mr. Steward's body being a "vessel" inhabited by some other being ever since he was struck by lightning. It is reminiscent of Johnny Depp's character Spencer in The Astronaut's Wife. When Spencer's ship loses contact with earth, his body also becomes inhabited by some "other" .

Rated: PG-13

115 minutes

Based on the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson

Directed by Richard Kelly, Screenplay by Richard Kelly

Starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella and others
I rate is 2.5/5 stars