Boxed

So The Box came up on my Netflix DVD qeue this week, and I am watching it. Strange to realize fairly well into the movie that this guy who works at NASA, and his wife, live in Richmond. That's ... a bit of a commute, for a guy not making corporate executive wages. And in 1976 it was next to unheard of. I've known some who do it, but it's rare, and pretty unlikely for a guy who's portrayed as not making tons of scratch. Never mind the accents (not bad in Generic Southern Drawl terms, but certainly missing out on the distinctive local twangs that come with our drawls), which most southerners (and Englishmen, I suspect) learn to simply live with, if not successfully ignore, out of Hollywood. There were a couple of interesting CGI'd establishing shots of the city as it appeared 35 years ago; not bad. Some of the CGI on Frank Langella's face was unfortunate - not least the design itself, which went a little too far for belief, in service of a supposed creep-factor. At the end of the day, the film still plays like exactly what it is; an extended, but not exceptionally deepened or enriched, Twilight Zone (circa 1980s TZ at that) episode.

The WAN MEEL-YAN DOLLAR "prize" is still comedically little, even with the time period, and the dilemma never really plays. Without pressing the button, there's no film, so it's impossible to generate suspense over the non-question of whether it will be. So a huge swath of the film is expended on unecessary "buildup" - which isn't.

I'm enjoying it okay for the teleplay-level diversion, but it makes me sad Langella got into this thing - and even I can see what a waste of Cameron Diaz's smile this role was for her, dour as she's called upon to be in every single scene. Her husband seems about fourteen. It's not a really *bad* film (she says, having watched 56 minutes at this point), but ... I'm not laughing. I'm not crying. It isn't becoming a part of me here.



Though, to be fair - after the week I have had ... a movie would be hard put to be anything like satisfying for me.