Director Alex Proyas’ Knowing crosses the distinct line between science and religion and explores the relationship of the highly controversial debate of our existence. This film is not a typical science fiction movie filled with disfigured space creatures and green globs, instead brings light to a deeper concept most would rather not delve into. Despite its over-the-top special effects and awkward dialog, Knowing pulls viewers to the edge of their seats and invites them to tag along on yet another Nicolas Cage mystery adventure.
By now “Nicolas Cage Mystery Adventure” should be its own genre. With all the National Treasure films and the talk of two more, Knowing would fit perfectly in this future box set. Cage (ridiculed for his recent roles in cheap films) plays John Koestler, a MIT astrophysics professor and an overprotective father. John spends most of his time drinking away the memory of his wife’s death and forbidding his 10-year-old son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), from leaving his sight.
The real story begins at the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Caleb’s school being open. A time capsule is dug up from 1959 when the school celebrated it’s opening, which was seen in the beginning of the film. The capsule’s contents are distributed to Caleb and his classmates. All the children receive pictures of the 1959 class’ predictions of the future. Everyone’s envelope contains a colored picture of things like rocket ships and astronauts, everyone’s but Caleb’s. He opens his envelope from Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) and sees that the front and back of the paper is completely filled with numbers. Caleb examines the paper and then looks up and sees a black mysterious figure standing in the woods.
These figures appear time and time again as the plot unravels. When seen, a whispering sound occurs, but the whispers overlap each other so much that it’s impossible to understand. Caleb takes the picture home with him, but doesn’t mention to his father the mysterious man he saw in the woods. John discovers his son has stolen the picture from the school and sends him to bed. After accidentally staining the picture of numbers, John takes a closer look at it and tries to find meaning. What he does find will change the world and virtually everything in it.
Through his investigation, John tracks down Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne) who is the daughter of Lucinda Embry—the woman who wrote the list of numbers. Byrne completely misses her role as an independent woman looking to escape her past and rather blurts out her entire life story through expository dialogue. Her acting in Knowing is incredibly beneath her true abilities seen in films like Troy and Sunshine. But Byrne isn’t the only one responsible for this disastrous film.
What happened to Nicolas Cage and his good days of acting seen in films like Face/Off and Con Air? With any more suspenseful mystery films, audiences can expect to see the unchanged “jolly old clever Nick.” He’s playing the same character that comes up with genius ways to solve virtually any problem he could ever face in any situation. He always plays the smart guy with all the answers and his tone of voice during these great reveals is becoming more of a laugh track as audiences are catching on. He’s beginning to sound a lot like Velma from Scooby Doo and her classic “Jinkies!” phrase.
“Jinkies” would have only been an improvement to this lackluster script. Screenwriter Ryne Douglas Pearson and husband and wife team Stiles White and Juliet Snowden brings us this disappointing screenplay full of forced dialogue and underdeveloped characters. It’s pretty bad when it takes three writers to make a crappy script. Lines like “The caves won’t save us!” and “This is not a crank call,” are just the beginning of the awkward dialogue viewers have no other choice but to laugh at. The viewer only gets to know character backgrounds through their episodes of puking dialogue. When necessary characters suddenly tell us everything we need to know in order for the present plot point to make sense.
If the filmmakers could have just edited out Knowing’s ridiculous –not so special- effects and replaced the National Treasure Hunter with a clean face, the unique themes and thought provoking questions may have kept it in theaters a bit longer. Knowing is suspenseful to the point that the characters are running around shouting and you do want to know how things will end, but for many this ending will seem very cheap. This film is definitely not for the typical Sci-fi audience, but provides a new view of what’s to come of our world.
Perhaps Proyas should stick to directing films starring Will Smith and robots taking over the world. From now on, any film involving Cage breaking codes should be avoided or better yet prohibited from public viewing.
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