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Directed By
Alex Proyas
Written By:
Juliet Snowden, Stiles White, Alex Proyas, Richard Kelly, Ryne Douglas Pearson, Stuart Hazeldine
Cast:
Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, Ben Mendelsohn, Adrienne Pickering, Terry Camilleri, Andria Blackman, Katelyn Cahill, Liam Hemsworth, Nadia Townsend, Liam Hemsworth, Danielle Carter, Angie Diaz, Sally Anne Arnott, Lara Robinson, Tamara Donnellan, Anna Anderson, Giovanni Bartuccio, Brett Robson, Jake Bradley, Clem Maloney, Jayson Sutcliffe, Andrew Lyons, Clement Tang, Luke Calder, Naomi Davis, Alyssa McClelland, Ali Ammouchi, Menik Gooneratne
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Knowing (2009)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
March 20th, 2009
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'Knowing' is an engrossing, intelligent sci-fi thriller from visionary director Alex Proyas, whose previous features include the brilliant Dark City and The Crow, along with the Will Smith blockbuster I Robot. It is both startling and occasionally frightening, and while parts of it are totally preposterous, it does a surprisingly good job of maintaining at least a modicum of plausibility, rather than dispensing with it altogether in favor of developments that reek of illogical fabrication.
At an elementary school in Lexington, Massachusetts, a time capsule is unearthed after fifty years; inside are drawings from 1959, indicating what the children of that era expected the world to look like in five decades. One student, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) finds something a little different; a sheet of paper with numbers on it. His father, MIT professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) examines the numbers and discovers what he believes to be a pattern; a sequential listing of deadly events (including 9/11) that have occurred in the last half-century.
The numbers further reveal specific information: dates, death tolls, even longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. If it stopped there, John may have simply been amazed that he found such a pattern; however, his amazement quickly turns into horror, when he realizes that three more calamities are set to occur, culminating most likely in the destruction of the world and humanity, unless John can stop them.
John has been granted the gift of foresight, to ability to "know" (hence the title) when these awful things will happen, but having the power to alter the course of the future is something entirely different. One option available to him is to track down the person who originally made these predictions; Lucinda Embry. This leads him to encounter Lucinda's daughter Diana (Rose Byrne) and granddaughter Abby (Lara Robinson, who also plays Lucinda as a little girl). Diana is intentionally evasive when John starts asking her questions about her mother; but eventually, she is persuaded that he is telling the truth, and joins him in a quest to uncover the source of the prophecies.
There are some harrowing and intense scenes here; one of which involves John pushing frantically through a maze of smoking debris, as he tries to save the passengers of a downed jet. It is obvious that several of them have not survived, and have been burned alive whilst trapped in the wreckage. John is still dealing with the death of his wife; this caused him to lose his faith, and grow apart from his father, a reverend (Alan Hopgood). John has invested his energies into science and reason; the movie shows him being challenged by events that defy rational explanation, and seem to be linked to the paranormal.
The movie never has John re-connecting with religion, or even fully overcoming his skepticism about the afterlife, but he is at least willing to re-evaluate his opinion on the matter, given what he has experienced. John also has a sister, Grace (Nadia Townsend), who is worried about him, and visits him every now and then. John's relationship with Caleb is authentic and well-developed.
This is Cage's best performance in a while; really since The Weather Man, back in 2005. He has a rather spotty resume for a Hollywood A-lister; recent misfires include The Wicker Man and Bangkok Dangerous. In his element, though, Cage is a terrific actor, and proves that here, though it lacks the dramatic complexity of his work, in say, Leaving Las Vegas, and therefore won't be bringing him any major awards. Canterbury is a fresh-faced talent with a lot of natural charm. Byrne is terrific. Proyas is not breaking new ground here; he has drawn inspiration from Spielberg and M. Night Shyamalan (especially in having Caleb accosted by the mysterious "whisper people" that seem to come out of the woods), as well as The Ring, and The DaVinci Code, not to mention a bit of Cage's less serious Indiana Jones knock-off National Treasure. You may inevitably notice some immediate similarities to Next, starring Cage and Julianne Moore.
The premise explores various aspects of numerology, itself a kind of mystical pseudo-science, seen to some degree in the Jim Carrey vehicle The Number 23. Proyas avoids heavy-handed imposition of complex themes like religion, and the fundamental nature of the universe (as either controlled by destiny or coincidence), and so he never alienates the viewer. I found it consistently intriguing. Great special effects, a brilliant score (by Marco Beltrami), and fluid, immersive editing (by Richard Learoyd).
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