Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko made him famous, but to judge by this unhappy mess he's having trouble confirming his talent.
Still, The Box at least starts with an intriguing premise: a strange man arrives at the door of a struggling married couple (James Marsden and Cameron Diaz).
He brandishes a box with some kind of machine in it. If the couple press its button they will receive $1 million - though someone somewhere will die.
Frank Langella is the stranger, and he can act. The rest of the cast have a difficult time transcending a storyline like a Twilight Zone reject.
Diaz, who presses the button, survives but only just; Marsden (who looks more like her son than her husband) does too - but it's a narrow thing in a movie that never sticks to the same tone for longer than 10 minutes at a time.
The Box
Cert: 12A
