Imagine that with the press of a button, you could easily have $1 million. But there’s a catch. If you press that button, someone, somewhere in the world will die. You don’t know who it will be, but it will be a total stranger. Still sound worth it?
In the new Richard Kelly film “The Box,” the characters deal with this moral dilemma. Norma Lewis (Cameron Diaz) and her husband Arthur (James Marsden) are a suburban family with a son who one day receives a box delivered by Mr. Steward (Frank Langella), a mysterious man with half a face. He gives them the box with a warning of the consequences should they press the button. What ensues is a thriller that tests human morals and prompts one to ask what they would do.
Based on the short story “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson and an ‘80s “Twilight Zone” episode, “The Box” has been written and transformed into a full-length film written and directed by Kelly. He is familiar with dark films, having created the cult hit that is equal parts dark and frightening: “Donnie Darko.” What followed was the apocalyptic “Southland Tales” and the sequel to “Darko,” “S. Darko.” Now, with “The Box”, Kelly revisits his old style of filmmaking, but this time its topic is much closer to the heart.
“I read the original story when I was young and the concept of the story left a huge imprint in my mind,” Kelly said in an interview with The Eagle. “I spent many years trying to make it, so it’s been a long journey to finally get here.”
However, the same can’t be said of Diaz and Marsden, who both said that neither read the story.
“I never read the story, just so I could stay focused on our version,” Marsden said. “But I have seen the Twilight episode.”
For both Diaz and Marsden, the film is unlike any they have done before. Over her vast career, Diaz has painted herself as a comedic actress with box office clout in films like “Shrek” and “Charlie’s Angels.” For Diaz, this film was more an opportunity to work with Kelly.
“I was a huge fan of [Kelly’s], and I just really wanted to work with him,” Diaz said. “When I read the script, I felt that it was one of the very authentic stories that he tells. This film has such an existential quandary, and I just knew that Richard would tell the story uniquely as he does, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
The film takes place in the ‘70s with Diaz playing a typical Southern mother, complete with accent and feathered hair. The character was far away from who Diaz is in real life, influencing her acting style.
“All I have is me,” Diaz said. “You have to try to understand what other people are going through, even if you haven’t gone through it yourself. But you never really know, so as much as you’re being somebody else, you’re only working from your own toolbox and experience, so I would like to think that it’s none of me in there.”
For Marsden, the process is not exactly the same.
“I can tell you that for me, I know I wouldn’t be responding to the story and the character if there wasn’t a part of me in that,” Marsden said. “There’s always going to be a piece of you that is going to be inherent in your performance.”
Marsden, who plays the husband of Diaz’s character, was able to use his own experience in the character as well — a native of Oklahoma, he was able to speak with a proper Southern accent in the film.
Marsden, known for being in several films — among them: “X-Men,” “Enchanted,” “Hairspray,” “The Notebook” and “27 Dresses” — is usually seen most often as a comedic or romantic actor. However, when it came to doing sci-fi thriller “The Box,” Marsden said he didn’t have much experience to draw upon.
“It was great to do something different,” he said. “I guess in ‘X-Men’ there was a little bit of science fiction there, but more comic book. It was less of something that I was aware of on a daily basis when we were shooting and more about the script and the characters, because these characters were very human, although surrounded by some supernatural elements.”
With Kelly at the helm of this sci-fi thriller, it is certain that “The Box” will leave audiences everywhere completely enthralled. It is now in theaters.
You can reach this staff writer at ydesta@theeagleonline.com.
