‘The Box’ (2022) Review: Greed and Corruption Costs Human Lives
Lorenzo Vigas’ The Box (La Caja) is a powerful and multilayered thriller that explores how humans are exploited due to greed and corruption. An unflinching story that focuses on the relationship between a young boy and a man who he believes is the father, which takes a dreadful turn. It’s a movie that touches on immigration and labour, while also focusing on absent fathers and the desperation to fill the void.
The film begins with Hatzín (Hatzín Navarrete), who is a young teenager from Mexico City. He travels alone to collect the remains of his father, which was found in a communal grave at a remote site. His father is believed to be one of the 50 people exhumed at the site. Hatzín signs the paperwork and collects the remains, which are inside a rectangular metal box. On his way home on the bus, he spots a man that distinctly looks like his father. Hatzín approaches the stranger, Mario Enderle (Hernán Mendoza), who tells Hatzín that he must have the wrong person. Hatzín is convinced that Mario is his father and returns the box. Mario becomes impatient with Hatzín, who keeps stalking him even after he drops the young boy at the bus station. With no other option, Mario welcomes Hatzín to his home and involves him in the family business. What Hatzín doesn’t realise is that Mario is a labourer who supplies workers to local factories and exploits them. Hatzín gets wrapped up in the many illegalities of Mario’s business and ultimately, becomes entangled in criminal activity.
The Box is a thriller that explores the harsh realities of the exploitation of migrant workers. The festering conflict between Hatzín and Mario turns into a situation where they deal with things that are far beyond what is morally grey. Hatzín never expected to turn to a life of crime and violence, but there are hidden aspects of Mario’s life that slowly unravels. For Mario, Hatzín becomes a very valuable person. Hatzín’s knowledge helps him to keep track of the labourers and their payments with the factories. In return, Mario gives him a place to stay. Everything about their relationship is transactional or rather, helps them to work out what they need from each other. Hatzín needed a paternal influence in his life and Mario was the answer, but what he didn’t expect was the illegal decisions — sometimes violent decisions — that ended with a worker’s life in danger.
It leaves Hatzín in uncertain situations from which he cannot remove himself. When a young worker asks questions about the working conditions and underpaid payments, Hatzín listens. He didn’t expect to find himself in more uncertain situations, especially when the young worker suddenly disappears. These shocking discoveries force him to question his morals and Mario’s place in all of this. This uncertain situation turns into a dark and twisted ending that makes it even more complicated for Hatzín. He struggles to figure out his identity and how all of these decisions he has made affect his life. It’s a grounding experience to watch Hatzín make sense of the world around him.
The Box will leave the viewer with a heartbreaking ending. The movie understands that the cost of human life is a dissolution, which considers industrial labour to exploit and abuse workers for their own benefit. There are countless cases of Latin Americans disappearing due to the drug trade and even under the trafficking that exploits migrant workers. The Box is a thought-provoking thriller that focuses on the exploitative regimes that leave a devastating result, and a young boy’s desire to find a father figure.
