Hell is other people

Since this is our first script review let me explain how this works.  Basically thanks to the magic of the internet, occasionally I’ll come across the script to a movie that either I haven’t seen for some reason, or is maybe a different version of a movie that was made (for example Kevin Smith’s “Superman”) or a really early draft that is pretty different from the finished project.  Scripts are fun to read so I figured when I do such a thing, I’ll pop on here and write up a review.  Oh also movies yet to be made are included in this category.  Obviously I can review nothing about the movie but the writing so that’s all these reviews are.  Basic reviews of the plot, characters, dialogue, everything on the written page. For legal reasons I will not post a link to the script unless given permission by the author. Remember you can use the “contact” tab to send us your own scripts.

This first review is of Richard Kelly’s new recently released film “The Box” based off the short story/Twilight Zone episode “Buttons, Buttons” by Richard Matheson.  The draft I read was dated 2006.  I have not seen the film version so I cannot speak to any differences there might be between this and the final product.

The only reason I haven’t seen this movie is that I’m kind of gun shy.  I loved Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly’s masterpiece, but Southland Tales despite how badly I wanted to love was an absolute horror show of a film.  So I’ve been slow to find my way to the theatre for this one.  Especially since it looks like it has a horrible premise.  How do you make “If you press this button you get a million dollars but someone you don’t know will die” stretch into a whole movie?  It seems like the most you could drag that out for is 10 minutes.  Even if Frank Langella is awesome.  It turns out though the movie is so much more than that.

First off it’s a period piece, something I didn’t get from the advertising.  It’s set in 1970′s Richmond, VA.  Like Kelly’s other works it blends genres and incorporates literary works into it.  Here there is a lot of Sartre’s No Exit incorporated.  The script starts off and actually a lot of the movie is really a tale of a suburban family in the 1970′s with some unsettling twists, like the wife has only one toe on her right foot because of medical malpractice when she was a child.  This isn’t the thrill packed movie the commercials make it look like (which is great in my opinion).  Also the push the button question is actually a very small piece of the movie, which if made like the script is really well paced.

The script takes on a surrealistic almost Lynchian (but thankfully not going that far) turn while incorporating mythology, sci-fi, and of course No Exit.  I never saw the Twilight Zone episode that this shares it’s story with but obviously they couldn’t pack as much material as there is here into that so I suspect you’re getting a lot more of the true original intentions here.  This also seems like a welcome return to form for Richard Kelly and reminded me lots of Donnie Darko, minus the trademark humor that film had.  I had based on the advertising expected this to be a little like “The Game”, but this script is just something totally different.  It also doesn’t really leave you hanging.  In the script everything is said pretty plainly at some point so you don’t leave confused, although this is definitely a head scratcher.

I absolutely loved this script and I cannot wait to run out and see the actual film that was made from it.