Sunday 6 December 2009


Last night I went to see the new Richard Kelly film 'The Box'. I was very excited about going to see this interesting directors latest film, he was at one point my hero after all (just after Donnie Darko). Hooked as I was by the interesting premise, I handed over my unlimited cinema card with high hopes. Sadly, what followed was two hours of self indulgent, poorly written drivel which rates as one of the worst films I have watched since...well probably since Southland tales, Kelly's last picture.

The film gets to the button pushing section very quickly which, in all honesty, is the reason everyone has paid to see it. This is an interesting setup and would allow for an interesting piece of drama. I expected an interesting portrayal of human emotion, showing the internal struggle between greed and morals. This however was glazed over all too quickly to make way for a mind numbing journey with bleeding noses and bubbling swimming pools galore!

I think one of the serious downfalls of this film was that the main characters, who are suffering from their self-determined fate, are not particularly interesting or likable. I had no interest in how their story ended and was not invested in their suffering to be affected by it at all!

All in all I was thoroughly disappointed by this film, it failed to live up to the interesting premise. It seems as though somebody had a good idea, which to be honest is not that original, and could not think of a good enough story to carry it through!

I give this film a very low 1/10, the 1 being for the interesting idea behind the film!