the box

this is one of those films that has a great premise, but doesnt have any follow through. the set up is this: a young family finds themselves in a really difficult financial situation, there is no way they can make ends meet. well, one day a box arrives at their front door. a man arrives to explain what the box is: its a button that the couple can press. if they press it, they will receive a bundle of money with no stipulations. the catch is this: when they press the button someone will die. sounds great, doesnt it? filled with moral ambiguity and some real deep implications: would you be willing to kill someone in order to gain financially?
well, the problem is that this film soon falls apart and doent really deal with the question itself. it is tossed off soon after the decision is made. instead we get some random stuff about the wife's foot and the husband's desire to be an astronaut. it comes together in the last minute or two with another interesting concept, but when the great ideas are not dealt with all through out the movie, the introduction of a new interesting twist at the end doesnt save this one from being very disappointing. it plays like an episode of the twilight zone. but not a very good episode.