Knowing
Movie Review
Knowing
by Eric D. Snider
Grade: B
Released: March 20, 2009
Directed by:
Cast:
"Knowing" seems like a generic title for anything, let alone a tense cinematic thriller, but it turns out to be a good choice. The film takes place at the intersection of science and religion, at the point where faith and certainty meet, and it has some subtle, thought-provoking themes lurking below its deceptively simple title. How would your actions be affected if you knew, rather than believed, something?
My use of the word "subtle" may raise red flags for readers who know that the film stars Nicolas Cage, whose relationship with subtlety is strained at best. And he does have his share of insane Nicolas Cage moments here, shouting "You want some of this??!" while striking a tree with a baseball bat in one scene and hollering "The caves won't save us!!" in another. The film also includes an image of a moose on fire and the depiction of someone stealing a door, in case you're keeping track.
So, OK, some of the details are a little nutty. But this sci-fi tale, directed by Alex Proyas ("Dark City," "The Crow") and based on a story by Ryne Douglas Pearson (who wrote the novel "Mercury Rising" was based on), moves with urgency and unflagging energy. Were it not for its disappointingly mundane final explanations, it would be captivating from start to finish. Yet even those explanations qualify as "satisfying" in that they reasonably follow what has come before. Once we have all the facts, the ending really is the ending that makes the most sense.
Cage plays John Koestler, an M.I.T. astrophysicist raised as the son of a pastor but now a bit more agnostic in his beliefs. His wife died a year ago, leaving him to care for their young son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), and this may have been the final nail in the coffin of his religious faith. He tells Caleb that "we don't know for sure" about heaven, but it's OK to believe if you want to. For himself, John thinks the world is just a random series of events, with no greater purpose.
Having established this, the film must now pick John up by his feet and shake him around until he starts rethinking his position. A time capsule is opened at Caleb's elementary school, and among the children's drawings from 1959 is a sheet of paper covered in numbers, seemingly with no pattern or logic. John, intrigued and a little obsessive (and fueled by bourbon), notices the sequence 911012996, does some googling, and realizes: 9/11/01 was a day on which 2,996 people were killed. It turns out many sequences on this sheet of paper follow the same pattern: first the date, then the number of people who were killed in some disaster or accident. Even better, three of the dates and their accompanying death tolls haven't happened yet!!
It's hard not to be sucked in by a premise this nifty -- admit it, you really want to know where that paper came from, and how (or whether) John can prevent the upcoming tragedies. This leads to the bigger question of determinism versus randomness, and along with the religious and philosophical questions are some puzzling plot elements like a group of odd men who seem to lurk in the periphery of John and Caleb's lives. What the eff does it all add up to?
As I said, some of the answers are a letdown, especially after the straightforward, white-knuckle excitement of the action sequences (including a horrific plane crash). In the end, the whole thing's rather preposterous -- but you gotta admire Proyas' nerve for going there. There's never a dull moment, nor is it a film you'll soon forget.
Grade: B
Rated PG-13, a little profanity, some intense sequences of disasters, moderate violence, nothing too graphic
2 hrs., 1 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 13 comments
March 28, 2009 at 10:29 am
Watch out, Math is coming!
March 28, 2009 at 11:52 am
Having not seen this yet, I really want to bet that the mundane ending here is just as obvious as the 'twist' in the Village: the paper really is filled with random numbers, and it's complete coincidence that they match up to other things. Doubtful. Oh well.
March 31, 2009 at 1:09 pm
"It's hard not to be sucked in by a premise this nifty -- admit it, you really want to know where that paper came from, and how (or whether) John can prevent the upcoming tragedies."
No, not really.
Nicholas Cage is just too big of a turnoff for me now. I don't think I can ever stand paying for another movie he's in. (Well, maybe if I was going with a group of friends to heckle it on purpose.)
April 2, 2009 at 1:06 pm
You gave this a B????
Eric, I agree with you on most things, but I dont know how you liked this one.
April 2, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I have to disagree with you too. To call the ending 'preposterous' is an understatement. I enjoyed the movie up until the end, which made me hate the entire time that I wasted in the theater.
Consider, in particular, that the entire premise behind the movie is completely irrelevant in the end. The fact that John knew what was coming doesn't change the outcome in any way, shape, or form. The ending would have been the same either way. In fact, he would have been better off not knowing. And I would be better off not having seen 'Knowing'.
April 5, 2009 at 4:23 pm
u gave haunting in conneticut a C and this a B?!
April 6, 2009 at 4:47 am
I actually thought this movie was pretty good. And yes, Eric, the ending was unexpected, indeed.
April 17, 2009 at 9:42 am
Just saw this one over the weekend and I am glad I didn't lose my faith in Proyas after "I, Robot." This movie had a sustained creepy tone and I really liked how the plot was uncompromised by the ending. There were certainly some corny parts and hammy Nic Cage, but as a sci-fi movie, it totally worked. Good sci-fi is hard to come by, and when that last 20 minutes rolls around of this movie, the movie wears its genre on its sleeve proudly. It's probably the movie that X-Files 2 should have been.
April 18, 2009 at 11:22 pm
This was a really entertaining movie. A lot of it was fairly ridiculous and over-the-top, like you said, but it was without question extremely enjoyable to watch throughout. In my personal opinion, Nicolas Cage is in no way a GOOD actor, but I really enjoyed watching him in this. The ending was definitely a little bit of a letdown, but I honestly cannot think of any possible way to end a movie with a buildup such as this. What they chose to do was sufficient, albeit a little strange and sort of a cop-out (I must say, I saw it coming pretty early on and even muttered my concerns that the odd men would be of a certain nature to my friend). I'd recommend it though, just because of how much fun I had at the theater.
September 2, 2009 at 10:16 am
It struck me as soon as I saw the "odd men who seem to lurk in the periphery" that one of them looks a little like Chris Martin. I mentioned this to my husband and so for the rest of the movie, we were able to make jokes like "Oh no--Coldplay is coming!"
It was awesome.
September 18, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I must say, I was having a wonderful day before going to view this movie. The birds were singing and the sun was out (of course, I DO live in florida...).
Exited and enthusiastic about viewing a movie, I was caught up in the pre-movie high where you don't give a damn what movie you see. I was with a couple other girl-friends and we decided that The Knowing would suffice as there were no desireable chick flicks at the time.
We enter the movie theater and it's just us. The movie is supposed to start at 9:15, it's now 2:25. I was the lucky one sent to ask what the hell was going on. turns out, they hadn't sold a ticket for that movie for the last two days and forgot to start it.
Free popcorn in my hand, I went and re-joined my friends with a theater to ourselves. The movie was filled with adrenaline. There were some biblical references and being not the most religious person, I was proud to say that I understood.
The little girl was meant to be creepy but I found her charachter a little humourous. I found myself questioning what she does in her free time? Is scratching numbers on doors a fun thing to do when compared to playing baseball with vampires in the rain?
The action scenes were quite entertaining, I will give them that. But come on! Isn't 45 a little old for some of these stunts? Aside from that, the end of the movie was absolutely disappointing. They spent all this time building up for a guy to stand in a field of rocks...
I would't waste your time or your money if I were you. Of course, if you enjoy ragging on things such as this, it tends to be a great conversation piece.
October 22, 2009 at 7:36 am
This seems to be a very polarizing film. I'm with Eric -- it's about a B. Ebert *loved* it. Most critics hated it.
I don't understand how people take issue with the story -- particularly the ending. You know what you're getting into. You've accepted the premise. From that point on, how else can it end? Anything else would either be cheap ("You know that part about 'everybody else' -- just kidding") or pointless. The "prophecy" accomplishes exactly what it was meant to accomplish. Nothing more, nothing less.
Where it falls short is in some of the delivery. Take the key early classroom scene where determinism is discussed. First, the discussion doesn't make much sense. Second, I don't believe for a second that this is a real college classroom. Nobody talks like that.
Some interesting commentary from Ebert is here, and at the linked-to blog entry:
October 22, 2009 at 7:40 am
Looks like my link didn't work. Here it is again: Ebert discusses "Knowing" reaction.