Knowing ** ½
Directed By: Alex Proyas.
Written By: Ryne Douglas Pearson and Juliet Snowden & Stiles White and Stuart Hazeldine.
Starring: Nicolas Cage (John Koestler), Chandler Canterbury (Caleb Koestler), Rose Byrne (Diana Wayland), D.G. Maloney (The Stranger), Lara Robinson (Lucinda Embry / Abby Wayland), Nadia Townsend (Grace Koestler), Alan Hopgood (Rev. Koestler), Adrienne Pickering (Allison).
Knowing is an interested, yet deeply flawed film. It starts out as a typical science fiction thriller, then gradually becomes deeper and more philosophical. I was surprised by how far the movie follows its basic premise, and reaches what maybe the only obvious conclusion for the story. B
ut so much of what happens in the movie requires too great of a leap of faith for me to really get into the movie. It asks too much of the viewer for what it eventually delivers.
The movie stars Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, a recent widower, raising his young son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) by himself. He is an astrophysicist at MIT, who teaches his students the difference between determinism and randomness. His own pet theory – “Shit Happens”. But then Caleb gets a sheet of paper from his school’s time capsule that was buried in the ground 50 years before. Every other kid got a picture, but all Caleb got was a sequence of numbers. Being a puzzle geek, John drunkenly sits down one night (he gets drunk nearly every night) and tries to find a pattern in the numbers. Shockingly he does. It seems like the number
represent certain dates, longitude and latitudes and the number of people who are killed. What’s shocking is that apparently they all match up perfectly to specific incidents – 9/11 and the Tsunami being the most recent examples- and even more shocking is that there are two dates left. John decides it is up to him to stop the remaining events.
From this rather basic sci-fi premise, director Alex Proyas and his writers spin a rather elaborate story that ends up being quite spiritual journey. We can guess this is the direction the film will take from the opening scenes, where it is revealed that Koestler is an atheist. There are no atheists in the movies, unless the movie is about their spiritual awakening. Who, for instance, is the weird stranger that always seems to be lurking around their house, and following them around. Koestler never really gets a good look at him, but Caleb not only does that, but he also hears them speak. And who was the little girl, who wrote the numbers in the first place? And, now that she’s dead, could possibly her daughter, Diana (Rose Bryne) or granddaughter (Lara Robinson) help Koestler solve the mystery? How could she be so scarily accurate?
I have to admit, I was fairly absorbed by the story, more so as it moved along. In fact, the film has a rather brilliant second act, fully of interesting spiritual conundrums, as well as great special effects. The plane crash sequence in this movie is one of the most intense, and horrifying, moments we are likely to see this year. After the fairly rote and mundane opening act, I got really into the movie, and couldn’t wait to see how it all played out. I am sorry to say that the final act
of the movie did not deliver on that promise. We get a series of chase sequences, and car crashes, and a lot of shots of Nicolas Cage running after his son. We then get to the end of the movie, which is in its own way fascinating, but somehow pulls off the trick of simultaneously telling us too much and telling us too little. A little less information, and you could have been free to draw your own interpretation of the movie – no matter what your religious beliefs may be (even, if like Koestler, you are an atheist). But, the film doesn’t really live that option open, as it gives away too much. Yet at the same time, the movie doesn’t quite go as far as it needs to fully explain its mysteries. Instead, we are stuck in this strange middle ground where we think we know what it all means, but are not really sure. While ambiguity can be an admirable quality in a movie – especially one marketed as a blockbuster – here it plays more like the filmmakers had a hole in their plot and didn’t know how to fill it.
The director of the movie is Alex Proyas. Few directors who emerged out of the 1990s can boast a debut film and a follow-up as strong as Proyas’ The Crow and Dark City (which is one of the best modern day science fiction movies that truly does deserve compar
isons to Blade Runner and Metropolis). Since then, his output has been erratic at best, and nothing to compare to his previous work. Knowing is no exception. While the film is certainly well made, it is too erratic, and ill thought out, to be a truly rewarding movie going experience. Nicolas Cage is fine in the lead role – he doesn’t go nearly as over the top as normal (which, can be either a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it) and the rest of the cast is fine, but they aren’t playing real characters – just instruments to be used by the plot for its own amusement. Knowing poses some interesting questions, and certainly it is a film I find myself thinking about a couple of days later, so perhaps I am being too hard on it. But the experience of actually watching the film is not nearly as involving as talking about it – and that isn’t a good sign. It is too earnest (seriously, only M. Night Shyamalan movies are usual both this ridiculous and self serious) to be truly a good movie. There are good things in here – and it’s nice to see Proyas at least being this ambitious again. But ambition and achievement are two very different things, and this time Proyas’ reach exceeded his grasp.
Directed By: Alex Proyas.
Written By: Ryne Douglas Pearson and Juliet Snowden & Stiles White and Stuart Hazeldine.
Starring: Nicolas Cage (John Koestler), Chandler Canterbury (Caleb Koestler), Rose Byrne (Diana Wayland), D.G. Maloney (The Stranger), Lara Robinson (Lucinda Embry / Abby Wayland), Nadia Townsend (Grace Koestler), Alan Hopgood (Rev. Koestler), Adrienne Pickering (Allison).
Knowing is an interested, yet deeply flawed film. It starts out as a typical science fiction thriller, then gradually becomes deeper and more philosophical. I was surprised by how far the movie follows its basic premise, and reaches what maybe the only obvious conclusion for the story. B
ut so much of what happens in the movie requires too great of a leap of faith for me to really get into the movie. It asks too much of the viewer for what it eventually delivers.The movie stars Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, a recent widower, raising his young son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) by himself. He is an astrophysicist at MIT, who teaches his students the difference between determinism and randomness. His own pet theory – “Shit Happens”. But then Caleb gets a sheet of paper from his school’s time capsule that was buried in the ground 50 years before. Every other kid got a picture, but all Caleb got was a sequence of numbers. Being a puzzle geek, John drunkenly sits down one night (he gets drunk nearly every night) and tries to find a pattern in the numbers. Shockingly he does. It seems like the number
represent certain dates, longitude and latitudes and the number of people who are killed. What’s shocking is that apparently they all match up perfectly to specific incidents – 9/11 and the Tsunami being the most recent examples- and even more shocking is that there are two dates left. John decides it is up to him to stop the remaining events.From this rather basic sci-fi premise, director Alex Proyas and his writers spin a rather elaborate story that ends up being quite spiritual journey. We can guess this is the direction the film will take from the opening scenes, where it is revealed that Koestler is an atheist. There are no atheists in the movies, unless the movie is about their spiritual awakening. Who, for instance, is the weird stranger that always seems to be lurking around their house, and following them around. Koestler never really gets a good look at him, but Caleb not only does that, but he also hears them speak. And who was the little girl, who wrote the numbers in the first place? And, now that she’s dead, could possibly her daughter, Diana (Rose Bryne) or granddaughter (Lara Robinson) help Koestler solve the mystery? How could she be so scarily accurate?
I have to admit, I was fairly absorbed by the story, more so as it moved along. In fact, the film has a rather brilliant second act, fully of interesting spiritual conundrums, as well as great special effects. The plane crash sequence in this movie is one of the most intense, and horrifying, moments we are likely to see this year. After the fairly rote and mundane opening act, I got really into the movie, and couldn’t wait to see how it all played out. I am sorry to say that the final act
of the movie did not deliver on that promise. We get a series of chase sequences, and car crashes, and a lot of shots of Nicolas Cage running after his son. We then get to the end of the movie, which is in its own way fascinating, but somehow pulls off the trick of simultaneously telling us too much and telling us too little. A little less information, and you could have been free to draw your own interpretation of the movie – no matter what your religious beliefs may be (even, if like Koestler, you are an atheist). But, the film doesn’t really live that option open, as it gives away too much. Yet at the same time, the movie doesn’t quite go as far as it needs to fully explain its mysteries. Instead, we are stuck in this strange middle ground where we think we know what it all means, but are not really sure. While ambiguity can be an admirable quality in a movie – especially one marketed as a blockbuster – here it plays more like the filmmakers had a hole in their plot and didn’t know how to fill it.The director of the movie is Alex Proyas. Few directors who emerged out of the 1990s can boast a debut film and a follow-up as strong as Proyas’ The Crow and Dark City (which is one of the best modern day science fiction movies that truly does deserve compar
isons to Blade Runner and Metropolis). Since then, his output has been erratic at best, and nothing to compare to his previous work. Knowing is no exception. While the film is certainly well made, it is too erratic, and ill thought out, to be a truly rewarding movie going experience. Nicolas Cage is fine in the lead role – he doesn’t go nearly as over the top as normal (which, can be either a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it) and the rest of the cast is fine, but they aren’t playing real characters – just instruments to be used by the plot for its own amusement. Knowing poses some interesting questions, and certainly it is a film I find myself thinking about a couple of days later, so perhaps I am being too hard on it. But the experience of actually watching the film is not nearly as involving as talking about it – and that isn’t a good sign. It is too earnest (seriously, only M. Night Shyamalan movies are usual both this ridiculous and self serious) to be truly a good movie. There are good things in here – and it’s nice to see Proyas at least being this ambitious again. But ambition and achievement are two very different things, and this time Proyas’ reach exceeded his grasp. 
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