After the indulgent, derided, half-brilliant Southland Tales, the marketing campaign for The Box led us to believe writer-director Richard Kelly lowered his sights to make a mere Hitchcockian thriller. Once you factor in the sci-fi elements and Christian apocalypticism, though, you find that's just not the case. Set in the mid-seventies, Frank Langella and a wooden box arrive at the suburban home of a midlevel NASA scientist (James Marsden) and his wife (Cameron Diaz). The mysterious man makes an indecent proposal: Would you press the red button in this box for a million dollars knowing that someone somewhere on earth would die as a result? Based on a short story by Richard Matheson.

Richard Kelly---USA---2009---115 mins.

• Warner Home Video
• Release date: 02/23/2010
• Letterboxed