Review of Alex Proyas' Knowing

Knowing (2009)

Director: Alex Proyas

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson

Time: 121 min.

Rating:

Knowing? More like thinking. What were Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, and Stiles White thinking when they decided to pen this mindless tale? What was Alex Proyas thinking when he agreed to direct this unfocused film? What was Nick Cage thinking when he signed the contract to star in this meaningless drivel? What was I thinking when I bought a ticket for Knowing instead of something more interesting like State of Play or maybe even 17 Again?

When his grade school opens a time capsule, young Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) receives a sheet of paper filled with seemingly random numbers, and he suddenly begins hearing messages from “The Whispering People.” His father, John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), an MIT astronomy professor who has to drink himself to sleep every night because his wife died in a fire years before, discovers the meaning behind these numbers.

What John learns about the numbers leads him on a super-obsessive pursuit of the origin of the numbers, which brings him in contact with Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), whose mother created the list and whose daughter, Abby (Lara Robinson) also hears the Whispering People. As John tries to comprehend the events the numbers predict, the Whispering People start pursuing Caleb and Abby for some apparently diabolical reason.

Knowing’s cinematography creates some visually luscious scenes that can lull you into overlooking the rather nonsensical plot. Shots of John sitting in his room with his bottle of low-grade bourbon or of one of the Whispering People confronting Caleb in his bedroom are genuinely artistic and generate some intense ambiance.

But these moments of beauty are ruined by some gratuitous and absolutely ridiculous special effects scenes, like a burning moose clumbering through the woods or burning victims of a plane crash stumbling through a field. Whoever wrote those scenes didn’t seem to care about reality or even making something look realistic, which is vital in an era when natural (and not so natural) disasters are routinely captured on video and viewed on the Internet. (It’s even worse when computers can simulate disasters with such startling clarity and reality we know what they would look it if they really happened.)

But this carelessness in special effects simply permeates the script. The writers have John ramble on during a class about random events and destiny because they want to establish the premise that we are controlled by destiny. Sadly, the writers seem to think random events like plane crashes and hotel fires are proof of destiny, without ever considering the role that probably plays in randomness.

And then there is the role of the Whispering People. Initially, they are presented as malevolent demons and then as Goth terrorists, but once we discover who they really are, this presentation and their behavior in the earlier parts of the film really make no sense. These types of beings wouldn’t drive cars. They wouldn’t even walk around. They would simply teleport. But why write logically about characters with super powers.

Even John’s character makes no sense. He is over-protective of his son, but he drinks himself into a stupor every night and does un-over-protective things like forget to pick up his son at school. Yes, he obsesses about his son, but then randomly forgets about him—conflicting behaviors no character would genuinely experience. And for someone who drinks himself to sleep every night, he would almost certainly become an alcoholic or wake up seriously hung over every morning, which would cause him to loose his job, if not custody of his child.

But such poor character and plot construction fit perfectly well with a movie that ultimately has zero meaning. Without giving away the “surprise” ending, I will merely say that as you watch the final ten minutes of Knowing, you can only wonder why the entire movie was handled like a ghost story when it was really a story of celestial rebirth.

If the writers wanted to say something or promote some message about how we should live our lives, they should have revealed who the Whispering People really were midway through the film, which would have allowed them to use the characters to make a statement. But then, that would have required the writers to have some thought and talent, and it would have required the audience to actually think about their place in the universe.

In all honesty, Knowing isn’t absolutely dreadful. The non-special-effects visuals are sumptuous, and the cast acts decently, even the kids, even though the characters are poorly crafted and some of their dialogues are just silly. But since the film attempts to be a mainstream version of Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End, I would recommend reading Clarke’s book, which is more artistic and intelligent and has far more philosophical meaning.