The Box: Review By Err

i seem to like more of the movies that i watch than a lot of you do though so you probably won't be surprised to find out that i dug it.

one: it's based on a richard matheson story, which is just great in my opinion.

two: it's a weird little story, so right there with those two points you already know i was going to at least not hate it as long as the acting wasn't atrocious, which brings me to...

three: the acting was not atrocious.

i am, by no stretch of the imagination, a cameron diaz fan, though this is not to say that i hate or dislike her, simply that i have a hard time taking her seriously, and something about her face makes me want to look away and ignore her.

on the other hand-- i have been a fan of frank langella since i saw him play skeletor when i saw the old he-man movie in the theatres when i was a wee tyke.

i am, however, only "sort of" a fan of richard kelly, but i don't love his movies and not because i think he is bad but because i once plotted to hit, over the head with an aluminum baseball bat, anyone who made the mistake of telling me that donnie darko was their favorite movie ever simply because i was sick to death of hearing how great that highly over-rated movie was, much like the crow before it. (hey, what can i say? movies that appeal to whiny, angsty teenagers just don't appeal to a 30-odd year old.)

i would say richard kelly's strong suit is his eye for a good-looking shot.

i've always been a fan of symmetry on screen and there is plenty of that to go around here, such as with the title screen with the box in the middle of the table and the title surrounding the box, or the shot of the husband and his friend on a golf cart passing through the tunnel at nasa.

it's a good-looking movie is the point i'm driving at.

if i could wrangle my dusty braincells together long enough to explain what i think richard kelly's weakness is, i would say it's hard to put my finger on, but it has something to do with timing and pacing, like it's almost just right, but not quite.

sometimes pacing or timing issues like the ones we encounter in this movie can be helped by some sort of editing room trick or perhaps in the soundtrack, for instance.

anyway, i dug this movie, i thought it was interesting and fun and occasionally creepy even if it wasn't quite as polished as it could have been.