Denby on The Box
Excerpted from David Denby’s review, The New Yorker, November 16 2009
The Box, based on a story by Richard Matheson, doesn’t come close to Donnie Darko in psychological interest; it’s more a supernatural morality tale. . . .
The great Frank Langella, soft-voiced and menacing, even with his flesh torn away, is a charmer. Is he playing God or the Devil? . . .
Director Richard Kelly holds us with his extravagant virtuosity and his ability to create suspense through long sequences, though the movie is meaningless for anyone with genuine moral curiosity. The Box turns into a kind of sacrilegious Christian fable; it’s haunted by God, but it delivers a vicious doctrine. At the risk of impoliteness, I would suggest that Kelly drop his reliance on religio-mystico-eschatological humbug and embrace, in realistic terms, the fantastic possibilities in ordinary acts of murder, fear, heroism, and death. If he pulls himself together, he could be the next Hitchcock.
