#9 "The Box" (2009)

I love "Donnie Darko." It's on my short list of movies that absolutely taped a nerve when I first saw them, that gave me that pulse-quickening sense of 'That's what I want to make.'

"Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut," though, should have served as a warning. While Richard Kelly's preferred version provided some more backstory and intriguing mythology, it was overall a much less good movie than the original theatrical cut. Too much was explained, too much text was added that worked better as mysterious subtext and the thing just ran too damn long.

Those tendencies towards self-indulgence and self-seriousness are front and center in "The Box." Based on (or, I guess, 'very loosely inspired by...' would be more accurate) a Richard Matheson short story that would feel stretched in a half-hour "Twilight Zone" episode, Kelly's film really is the mess critics promised it was on its theatrical run. Although that short story serves as the jumping-off point, the plot quickly becomes a 70's period take on "The Day The Earth Stood Still" mixed with some of the mysticism - and bad 'mystic water' special effects - of "Donnie Darko," the horror elements of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and the mean-spirited morality of the "Saw" movies.

Throughout the film, moment by moment, I just kept thinking "Bullshit!" Starting with the initial dilemma, nothing feels real on a human level, and yet we're supposed to take all of this very seriously indeed and feel some kind of moral chill at the end. But I was never convinced of any of it.

There's nothing wrong with dream logic, but if you're going to go outside of normal human motivation you have to create your own intriguing - and consistent - set of rules for how your world works. Nothing in this movie felt motivated by the characters - everything felt motivated by Kelly's plotting, and that plotting felt both derivative and arbitrary.

Cameron Diaz and James Marsters do the best they can with their ridiculous lines and motivations, investing as much real emotion as they're able into characters whose actions never ring true. The real bright spot, the thing that made me wish Kelly had written at least five more drafts of the script before shooting is Frank Langella, who plays the mysterious presenter of the life-and-death moral dilemma in the titular box. Langella brings a sense of humanity and weary majesty to his role that deserves a much better movie.

I wish Richard Kelly well in his future work. I've heard that his second movie "Southland Tales" ("The Box" being his third) is an even bigger mess than this, but I still want to see it. Although it all goes pear-shaped here, Kelly does march to the beat of his own drum and is willing to take creative risks in pursuit of his vision. I want to think that he can get back to the personal, reality-grounded mysticism and inventiveness of "Donnie Darko," but "The Box" doesn't even come close to it.