Unimpressed film critics think outside The Box

What would you do? This is the moral conundrum at the heart of the new Cameron Diaz film The Box, in which a married couple are presented with a stark choice when a strange man leaves a box at their door.

If school teacher Norma (Diaz) and her Nasa scientist husband Arthur (James Marsden) - supposedly struggling to pay their son's private school fees - push a button, they will receive $1 million in the knowledge that someone, somewhere will die.

Now, following mixed reviews and a dire 'F score' from opening night audiences canvassed by market researchers, film-goers have their own quandary: should they or should they not go to see The Box?

The film is based on Button Button, a short story by sci-fi writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) set in a Virginia suburb in the late 1970s. First published in Playboy in 1970, it was turned into a Twilight Zone segment for TV in 1985.

It is directed by 34-year-old Richard Kelly, who came to prominence with his 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko and was then savaged for his second film, the 2006 folly Southland Tales.

Sadly, many American critics believe this one doesn't work either. Its maze-like plot, multitude of genres and failure to invoke any empathy for its main characters have all been attacked. Once Norma presses the button, the second half of the film slides into a pile-up of nose-bleeding zombies, time travel and conspiracy theories.

In one particularly scathing review, the Los Angeles Times critic Betsey Sharkey called The Box "painfully sluggish". She added that Kelly has "gone wildly off course".

Kelly's schtick is to use genre, numerous cultural allusions (in this case, from Sartre to The Shining) and an impending sense of doom to ask questions about the human condition. But this doesn't always work. As Manohla Dargis of the New York Times put it: "Mr Kelly is so busy sampling genres and confusing the issue that he rarely gives you time or space to enjoy them. In the end, he often seems as lost as his characters, trapped in a Pandora's box of his own making".

One thing that does work is the performance of Frank Langella. The 72-year-old actor, who this year missed out on the best actor Oscar for his role as President Nixon in Frost/Nixon, is unforgettable as the suave yet sinister Arlington Steward - the man who delivers the box. Film theorist David Thomson wrote in the Guardian: "All over the world, in the next few years, young film-makers are going to have him in mind... I think his Oscar is in the bag, or the box."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:David Jenkins, Time Out: "The latest film from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly arrives on these shores bearing the clawmarks of American critics. But don't panic: while it's true that the film's sci-fi antics are far from watertight in the logic department, there’s enough eccentricity and ambition at play to charm and bemuse in equal measure." (Verdict: three stars out of five)

David Denby, the New Yorker: "At the risk of impoliteness, I would suggest that Kelly drop his reliance on religio-mystico-eschatological humbug and embrace, in realistic terms, the fantastic possibilities in ordinary acts of murder, fear, heroism, and death. If he pulls himself together, he could be the next Hitchcock."

Mark Dinning, Empire: "On paper, it all looked very straight and smart: big star, big studio, big success. Instead, he takes that box office-friendly set-up and, well, indies it all over the place." (Verdict: four stars out of five).

Jordan Mintzer, Variety: "Despite the overkill, Kelly gains some arresting imagery from his multiple plotlines, with... a groovy monotone look, replete with '70s gadgets and backed by Arcade Fire's retro score." ·