Knowing

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, and Lara Robinson

Written by: Ryne Douglas Pearson, Alex Proyas, Stuart Hazeldine, Juliet Snowden, and Stiles White

Directed by: Alex Proyas

I have to admit I’ve always been a sucker for Alex Proyas flicks. The Crow was a film I used to watch over and over again when it first came out. I also think Dark City is highly underrated and I even appreciated much of what was attempted in his adaption of I, Robot. So I came into Knowing hoping for good times.

And I did enjoy the film…mostly…until the end where it all just fell apart.

The concept was not terribly unique – a girl from the 1950s heard voices and she wrote down a long numerical code of some kind to be put in a time capsule. Fifty years later, the son of an astrophysicist (played by Cage) gets the code and Cage gets a hold of it.

Figuring it out he deciphers that the code is dates, location, and people killed of the tragic events of the last fifty years.

It gets under his skin and he becomes obsessive with it as he realizes that there still are a few to go on his list. He isn’t truly sure until he witnesses a plane crash that kills eighty one people that was on the list. I commend the effects here as the sequence seems graphically realistic (I say seems because I’ve never witnessed a plane crash and/or the aftermaths.)

This spurs on Cage to try to save New York as it is the next target. He tries to warn the FBI after seeing that FBI data was indicating a terrorist attack. He fails in his attempt again.

After some research he is able to track down the woman’s daughter and with her they attempt to figure out what was going on. They are truly stymied by the last page which says EE instead of numbers. As they search her old mobile home, Cage discovers her writings on the underside of her mattress which says EE = Everyone Else.

And it’s happening soon.

All along the way, Cage’s son and the woman’s grandaughter are both hearing whispering voices from creepy whitefaced type men (who honestly reminded me a lot of Dark City so I approved…at first).

At this point though it really becomes jumbled. Stupid decisions by all of the lead characters, no answers to some questions (such as the black rocks that appear throughout the film. What are they…or better yet….why are they important?)

And finally…aliens.

I love alien movies, but not here. I knew it was coming from the moment Cage’s son asked in the beginning whether there was life on other planets but I was hoping not.

It seemed to be leading more towards something spiritual which I think would have worked better the way the film was progressing.

It’s hard to say. The film worked well for awhile and then completely fell apart as it hurtled towards oblivion…much like humanity. Maybe that’s what Proyas was trying to showcase?

C-