I'm wondering why the philosophical thriller "The Box" received a wide theatrical release when Richard Kelly's first two features — the cult-classic "Donnie Darko" (2001) and the oft-derided "Southland Tales" (2006) — did not, especially since "The Box" may be the least accessible of Kelly's films. Under the guise of a horror/conspiracy-thriller, it's easily the most marketable of the three. Yet philistines and academics alike might have a hard time accepting "The Box" into their respective camps — philistines because the film's jagged philosophical protrusions make it tough to swallow, and academics because Kelly has a weird way of simultaneously over- and under-explaining the movie's intriguing thematic complexities. At times frustrating to watch, "The Box" at least puts the viewer's brain to work, incorporating within an already perplexing story concepts that deserve more avenues than just the university textbooks to which they're usually resigned.
That "The Box" is based on a much simpler (and much shorter) morality tale should have made Kelly's efforts to open up the story a lot easier. He sticks with the initial premise — a mysterious man (Frank Langella) offers a married couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) a box with a single button on top. Pushing the button will both earn them a million dollars cash and cause someone they don't know to die. Just as she does in the original short story and the popular "Twilight Zone" episode that adapted it, the wife presses the button. The film spends little time explicating the internal impact the pressing of the button has on the couple, but instead shifts quickly into a surreal conspiracy piece that unravels in ways too odd to discuss here. Just be sure that what few satisfactory answers the film does provide can't match up to the cacophony of bizarre scenes that follows.
"The Box," like the director's cut of "Donnie Darko," introduces a lot of philosophical elements that, while very interesting, aren't necessary. Topics like free will, the true nature of the afterlife and the plausibility and importance of ancient alien species are left hanging, to varying degrees. Kelly apparently wants to say much more about the origin and intentions of the mysterious box-bearing stranger, but his vision ultimately feels compromised for pacing's sake. That's probably why so many of the concepts, as well as a great deal of the plot turns and reveals, feel abbreviated. It makes for a shorter, more commercial movie, but it does a disservice to the film's intellectual worth in the process. Don't worry, that simply means there's a director's cut out there eagerly awaiting an audience on DVD.

— Nick Cabreza