Richard Kelly’s debut,  Donnie Darko was one of the most original films of the decade. Featuring a time travel storyline wrapped up in a high school comedy drama, it stood up to repeated viewings. He came thudding down to earth with his follow up Southland Tales. The three hour cut featuring the cream of acting talent (!) Sean William Scott, The Rock and Justin Timberlake received a vitriolic reception at the Cannes Film Festival and was re-cut for its British release.

With his new film The Box, fans hoped that he could reign in his some of his more outlandish ideas and prove he was more than a one trick pony. So it is hugely disappointing to report that this box should have stayed closed. Like Darren Aronovsky’s The Fountain, it’s a film that looks fantastic, but has got a little too concerned with its own importance.  The excessively foreboding soundtrack is as subtle as Cuba Gooding Jr performance.

Based on as short story by Sci-Fi writer Richard Matheson, the film starts promisingly. A Virginia couple (Cameron Diaz,James Marsden) are visited by a mysterious stranger with his half his face missing (Frank Langella, in unnervy Nixon form). They are given the titular box and a choice – push the button and they will receive $1 million but someone they don’t know will die.

The central quandary is a fascinating one but the moral arguments are not sufficient to sustain the story for nearly two hours. Once the button is pushed, it is more of a Pandora’s Box as Kelly throws in zombies, mysterious portals and apocalyptic sentient beings .  This is a massive drawback because if you’re not sold along with the basic story, by 40 minutes in when things get seriously weird, it is fairly easy to dismiss the film as a throwaway (albeit expensive) episode of the Outer Limits.

Diaz’ motivation for pushing the button is also deeply flawed. Worries over how to pay their son’s private school fees hardly constitutes living on the breadline.  Couldn’t they just have sold Marsden’s rather expensive looking Corvette? 

There is no doubt Kelly is a talented director. There are four or five genuinely unsettling scenes as characters are taken over with a kind of mind control. They stuck with me well after the film had finished.Yet he has aimed for the apocalyptic, where the intimate would have worked better. Is there a reason why the original text was only a short story?

When all the evils of humanity had come out of Pandora’s Box, all that remained at the bottom was hope. That may be all that is left for Kelly’s career now. Let’s hope it’s not.