Knowing

Directed By Alex Proyas

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson

Synopsis:

At a Grand Opening of a 50 year old time capsule at his school, a young student accquires a childish drawing consisting entirely of numbers. His father sees it as something else as he matches the numbers to a series of dates; on each date was a disaster. The trouble is there are still three dates remaining and the last date could end up being the last calendar date ever, for mankind...



Review:

Much of whether or not you're going to enjoy this hinges on whether or not you like Nicholas Cage. If you don't, you'll probably want to avoid this one as it's centred around another standard performance, on the whole. It'd be a shame though, as there is much to like about this movie regardless of its leading star and your prejudice against his abilities.

It's a rare thing for a big budget Hollywood movie to be genuinely intellectual, but Knowing, just by its title, invites speculation on various issues, least of all Determinism.

Reviewing the typical aspects of the movie first. I don't feel I'm being too harsh on an actor who I like very much when I say that he phones in a lot of his performance in this movie. Maybe it's because the role is so similar to others that he has played. I think it works for the character, but still feel that there's a little too much acting by numbers here, by Nicholas. Saying that, there is a sense that Koestler is run down and caught up in cares since his wife's death and Cage portrays this quite naturally. He is a very different character than Ben Gates in the National Treasure movies.

Chandler Canterbury who plays Cage's son puts in a good performance as a child caught in the middle of something huge. The always dependable Rose Byrne plays a sympathetic character in the descendant of the girl who had written the table of numbers. Rose is no stranger to doomsday movies after starring in Danny Boyle's Sunshine.

I have been waiting for Alex Proyas to come up with a movie that I felt emulated the styles and depth of both The Crow and Dark City. Knowing is a worthy successor. The Direction, Cinematography and technical stuff is done brilliantly. Proyas draws the viewer into the story with some masterful shots. What made both The Crow and Dark City so visually stunning is on display here. There is the same duality within the content. You could easily dismiss Knowing as you could the two films I mention. But if you "get" them the experience is rewarding. One wonders what Richard (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales) Kelly would have done with the material had he Directed the movie.

There are a number of set pieces, the first of which comes out of the blue (literally) and was a genuine surprise. (I had avoided the trailer). In most movies, if a plane crashes, we see the plane descend and normally erupt into a fireball. There’s some of that here, but as Koestler runs to see if there are any survivors he is greeted by a number of survivors on fire and stumbling in agony. It’s almost as if Proyas wants us to experience more of the horror of this disaster than other directors. A second disaster later has the same ethic.

So, coming back to the intellectual side of the movie. The story challenges the audience to think about the predicament that Koestler finds himself in. At the beginning it appears that Koestler has to stop three major disasters. As time goes on the reality of his situation is very much different.

The very nature of knowledge is addressed in the movie. Near the beginning of the movie, Koestler is lecturing to his class and getting them to grasp the idea of Determinism Vs Random Actions (free will, basically). Koestler looks to stop the disasters and fails implying that Determinism wins the day, but the story also highlights the constant need to ask questions. The girl had predicted future events but was unable to stop them or was not willing to, almost like an observer. Koestler was initially, it seemed, in the wrong place at the wrong time. The second event occurred still without his intervention doing anything to stop it. The predictions appeared to be fixed points in time and the rescuers (if I can correctly call them that) were ready to assist knowing that mankind could do nothing.

Summary

The underlying philosophical subtext won’t be either apparent or welcome to some; a little like that in The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. There is still enough the interest the average movie watcher. For those with an appetite for a movie that can be analysed in many different ways then Knowing is one that will generate debate. I hope that Proyas will continue to make movies that flex our grey matter and perhaps a little more frequently than he has been. I’d rather Hollywood take chances on screenplays such as this than endless sequels and remakes.

7 out of 10 (Wayfarer)