The Box

Writer-director Richard Kelly’s near-miss thriller presents an irresistible proposition—a married couple is offered $1 million by a disfigured stranger (Frank Langella) to press a button that will kill an anonymous person they don’t know. The Box adapts Richard Matheson’s 1970 short story “Button, Button,” although it more closely resembles the 1986 Twilight Zone episode’s take, only expanded with the apocalyptic dread and cheeky nostalgia you’d expect from the maker of Donnie Darko and Southland Tales. Kelly has atmosphere and half-baked ideas to burn, but the acting is mediocre (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden struggle with Southern accents as the couple) and the clumsy plotting frequently undercuts the movie’s big twists. That wouldn’t have mattered if there was some genuine substance beneath the metaphysical trappings, but despite its pretty wrapping, The Box is empty.