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Knowing

On my birthday a couple of good friends joined me on an exodus to Hurstville Greater Union to watch the 4:30pm session of an Alex Proyas film - Knowing. We were fortunate enough to practically have the entire cinema to ourselves, resulting in the exchanging of snarky remarks, cynical observations and critical judgments being plausible without facing an imminent threat of other people in the immediate vicinity chiming in and telling us all to 'Shut up'.

So let us begin the review. I am going to analyse the film in 5 different areas, because Ben Coles thinks anything more than that is excessively excessive and worthy of being placed in front of a firing squad and subsequently cold-cocked by six different gun-wielding army sadists simultaneously. These five areas fall under the general and conveniently labelled headings of:

Plot
Acting
Cinematography
Music
Overall Effect

For no particular reason we shall look at Plot first. Since I cannot actually be bothered to portray the plot in its entirety in a sarcastic and humourous manner, here is the summary of the film courtesy of Wikipedia:

"In 1959, at William Dawes Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, a time capsule containing the students' drawings of their ideas of the future is buried and set to be ceremoniously opened 50 years later. A girl named Lucinda Embry contributes a page full of seemingly random digits. That night, Lucinda is found in a school closet, where her fingers are bloodied and she complains about hearing voices.

In 2009, the time capsule is opened and the drawings are given to the current students. A boy named Caleb receives Lucinda's envelope. His father John Koestler, a widower and professor of astrophysics at MIT takes notice in the paper, and he soon realizes that part of these digits form dates and death tolls of every major disaster over the past fifty years, and suggests three disasters yet to come. Meanwhile, Caleb begins receiving visits from mysterious figures in overcoats (listed in the credits as "The Strangers"), and during his encounters he hears their overlapping telepathic whispers.

John witnesses a commercial plane crash on the date the paper next predicted a disaster would occur, and he discovers that the unexplained digits on the paper are in fact the geographic coordinates of the events. Speaking with Lucinda's former teacher, John learns of Lucinda's closet episode, and also that she had since died after an overdose. He then meets Lucinda's daughter, Diana Wayland, but is rebuffed once he mentions Lucinda's paper. However, after John uses the numbers to correctly predict another disaster — a Manhattan subway train derailment which John tries and fails to prevent — Diana seeks out John, and together they go to investigate Lucinda's old remote mobile home. Having noticed that the last date on the paper is not accompanied by coordiantes, further clues in Lucinda's home lead John and Diana to realize that the '33' listed as the death toll for the final disaster is actually 'EE' reversed, which Lucinda meant to represent 'Everyone Else'. In the woods outside the home, John confronts one of The Strangers, who disappears in a flash of light. It is revealed that Diana's daughter Abby can hear The Strangers' eerie whispers as well.

John and a fellow professor forecast that a massive solar flare will soon reach Earth, and the final disaster on Lucinda's paper will indeed be global in scale. John then examines the door of the closet in which Lucinda was found, and discovers it is where she had scratched another set of coordinates. They represent the location of Lucinda's old mobile home, and John figures that it is somehow a refuge from the impending disaster. Diana insists they seek shelter in underground caves instead, and she takes Abby and Caleb, without John's knowledge, to go there. As panic erupts after news of the flare is made public, The Strangers drive off in Diana's car with Caleb and Abby still inside. Diana gives chase in another vehicle, and is killed when she is broadsided by a truck.

At Lucinda's mobile home, John finds the children with the four Strangers as a glowing vessel descends from the sky. The Strangers dispossess themselves of their human appearance, revealing themselves to be glowing, translucent figures surrounded by wisps of light. The Strangers invite only those who can hear their whispers to leave Earth with them. John convinces an initially reluctant Caleb to go with The Strangers, and the vessel departs with the two children. From the vantage point of space, other ships are seen taking off from all around Earth. John travels to Boston to be with his sister and parents. While he had distanced himself from religion following his wife's death, John reconciles with his previously estranged father, a Christian minister. John and his family embrace as the solar flare strikes Earth and incinerates all life on the planet. Elsewhere, Caleb and Abby are dropped off in an otherworldly field, and the film ends as the two make their way towards a prominent solitary tree in the distance. Other ships are also visible along the horizon, dropping off others."

Thank you Wikipedia. Now this storyline, needless to say, requires the audience to undergo a process known as 'suspension of disbelief'. We can either watch this film and gladly point out all the improbabilities and impossbilities (which we did, mind you) or we can simply accept that this is the premise that is required to make a good film and we should merely enjoy it for what it is - a good science fiction film that entertains us for two hours. Now, I have no problem with suspending my disbelief for the purposes of entertainment. In fact I do so on a weekly basis for TV Shows such as 'Heroes' and 'Supernatural', which obviously require the viewer to accept the circumstances portrayed in each plot for the purposes of entertainment and enjoyment.

However, I do have a problem when in certain cases like Knowing, this suspension of disbelief is asked of us lazy and uncompromising viewers but it doesn't result in anything spectacular or even good. Taking the whole 'aliens are responsible for the destruction and revitalisation of the human race' component out of the picture, because this is the biggest and most notable incredulous decision they made, I find that there are many situations which are either just hard to believe or are simply just not explained, but are used merely as a mechanism to further the plot.

Let me give you an example. Actually I'm feeling generous, so let me give you three. Firstly, the method of actually getting Nicolas Cage's character into the mystery. He is unhappy with the relationship with his son, so he drinks some alcohol to take the edge off, carrying the bottle with him so he can drink and then refill in the space of seconds. As you do. Then he drifts off into thought while he pours more alcohol into his glass, to the extent where he pours too much and the liquid flows off the edges of the glass and ruins his carpet. As you do. Then he quickly walks to the kitchen and in his quick but desperate attempt to clean up he places his glass on the very sheet of paper which he scolded his son for taking home because it wasn't their property (without even making sure he puts it into his bag to take to school the next day) and insodoing, he stains the piece of paper, which miraculously encircles a group of numbers that he immediately associates with 9/11. Not only do I find that is an incredulous way of getting the character motivated enough to spend the entire night REWRITING THE ENTIRE STRING OF NUMBERS ONTO A WHITEBOARD (and not typing it up) but then researching every single disaster listed on that page and matching the casualty rate to what is predicted on the sheet of paper in the amount of hours he has during the night, but I just find something unnerving and perhaps even distasteful in using 9/11 to kickstart a magical mystery tour of the strange and unexplained which leads to an apocalyptic, cataclysmic demise of our planet. But that's just me.

Secondly, the incident with the aeroplane in the field. I accepted how the accident just happened in the exact location that was predicted to give Cage the insight that the remaining uncircled numbers were the GPS co-ordinates up and until the point where the explanation that 'it was all about him knowing so that he could stop these disasters' held. Then it turns out only the people that can hear the 'whisper people' would be taken away to the new home, which looks remarkably 'Garden of Eden' like (at which my friend Daniel cringed because this film left us with a religious aftertaste). Although this was not definitely the case (I mean, what the hell was with those rabbits? To me they symbolise discontinuity and lack of clarity about what message they're trying to send), no one can argue that this method of interpretation isn't there. Again, bad storytelling just to further the plot. And another thing that was completely unnecessary due to the lack of exploration in the plot was the whole issue with all the other ships. This does nothing to give us a sense of closure, and raises only more questions.

Who were the ships transporting?
If there were more gifted children who could hear the 'Whisper People' around the World, then why wasn't this more of a global phenomeon?
Shouldn't there have been more 'prophets' and therefore more 'warnings' prior to this happening?
Is the final picture meant to represent 'The Garden of Eden'? If so, why are there more kids?

Perhaps there might be a sequel where all the Adams and all the Eves have to battle it out in a fight to the death on this new planet. My friend Jonathan says that these other ships were for all the other animals. I hate this Noah's Arkesque explanation even more because it implies they can hear the whispers and therefore aren't simply there to keep the whisper-hearing kids company on what could possibly be a long trip and then a long life on the new planet. That said, an explanation is better than no explanation, which is what we got. Bad Knowing, bad. No biscuit.

Finally, the method of weaving in the discovery of the numbers etched in the door was nothing short of 'Please explain'. Ok, so Caleb is now a Lucinda-esque prophet? What is he predicting? I mean, there's nothing that those numbers could possibly refer to after the end of this world. Is he predicting what's going to happen in the new world? Perhaps, but firstly there's no GPS coordinates there and there might very well be a new system of time. So this was a massive plothole there only to make Cage realise that there might be more numbers. And why did we need those numbers in the first place? Couldn't he just have gone to the caves and died along with everyone else while the kids got rescued by the strangers and lived happily ever after? Oh wait, it's because we needed to fulfill 5 different sub-plots.

And this is another problem I had with the plot. There were a few underlying sub-plots such as Diana's motherly quest, Cage's daddy issues, the Father and Son 'Youmetogetherforever' dynamic, the 'Is there an afterlife' question as well as the 'Let's think of something to make Nicolas Cage kneel and look like a completely stupid retard who's starring in some overly melodramatic operatic music video' or put more simply the 'Will I ever get over the loss of my wife' dimension. The problem with these sub plots is that they ultimately serve no purpose to the plot and we don't care about them. The reason for this is that the characters were never properly explored beyond the aspect of depressing back-stories and melancholy musings about death and the futility of trying to stop it, and so we never actually care about most of the characters. Another reason for this is because there were too many minor characters who could've simply been erased from the film completely.

Case in Point: John's Professor Friend. What did he do in the film. Oh, invite him to meet this chick who's interested in him which never happens anyway. Oh and he's a sounding board for John who tells him he's an idiot. Then he gets annoyed because Cage's character doesn't talk to him anymore. Oh, and he says 'My God' when he finds out he's gonna die. Good character.

Honestly, they could've explored Cage's backstory and the family dynamic a lot more deeply and successfully, instead of just reverting to the 'Oh look the world is going to end so let's all die in a family hug' option. I mean, the movie moved at such a slow pace and dragged on for so long with meaningless plot exposition and non-centric character analysis or focus. Knowing's plot tries to explore too much in little detail, which ultimately leaves the audience detached from what the actual message of the movie is actually supposed to be. And when you don't find that you care when someone dies (like Diana's Noomaesque car crash for example) then it's the writer's fault for not making us care about them enough. The only character I found that I truly liked was probably Caleb, and most of that wasn't because of good writing, it was good acting.

And that's a nice segue to move on from Plot into Acting. As far as good acting went, there was practically none. Except for Caleb, the exception that proves the rule. Everyone else was mediocre at best, and I enjoyed Cage's portrayal in the National Treasure series much more than anything he did in this film. He managed to attack every single scene in this film with the same serious depressing facial expression and that made the film that much more depressing. Complimented with the same sort of performance from everyone else and a slow pace to let this sink in, and the viewers practically don't never know why there are sudden and unexpected jabs at humour.

I'm not even going to mention the other actors and actresses, because there's nothing to mention. The acting was generally subpar all over the board and so I will mention Chandler Canterbury once more for a well-portrayed depiction of Caleb Koestler. Ok I lied, I didn't mind the whole Koestler family at all. They were alright. But that's not the point! If the casting department decided to only get strong supporting actors/actresses that only appear in 3 scenes or less and settle with a mediocre leading cast, then they deserve this criticism. In fact, I think I'm being nice to them.

The cinematography was probably my favourite aspect of this film. All the special effects sequences were absolutely amazing - from the plane crash to the subway derailment and the firestorm of ultimate destruction as well as the alien spirits and their ship. The CGI in this film was breathtaking and definitely the strongest part of this picture. Despite the film being uncertain as to whether it wanted to be funny, serious, gloomy, depressing or philosophically insightful, the suspense was certainly maintained for most of the movie and the moments where the movie tried to act like a horror film and scare the viewers for the sake of being a horror film and scaring the viewers, it certainly did that quite well, the most notable example being the introduction of Grace Koestler who frightened both Cage and me, for one, in the first third of the film. The eventual set of Lucinda's decrepit, dilapidated shack and the clearing of the black pebbles where the iconic 'Nicolas Cage on knees' moment occurred were all brillantly shot.

Finally the music. Maybe it was the cinema. Maybe it was the movie. Whatever it was, there was a constant alternating cycle of almost silence in the suspenseful 'trying to figure out what's happening' scenes, while the disaster scenes and the dramatic scenarios were all accompanied with extremely loud and intrusive music. Generally, disregarding the extreme volume thresholds, the creepy, suspenseful music was a bit unfulfilling to my taste, and it wasn't until the atmospheric, emotional ending that it seemed fully appropriate and fitting, as well as actually adding to the visual medium of what was actually on screen. It wasn't as bad as the acting but it could've been helped with a bit more consistency and a more memorable score as opposed to just scene-by-scene music. But then again, maybe that's the effect they wanted. I can't be sure.

After taking into account the plot, the acting, the cinematography and the music of 'Knowing', what is my opinion and rating of this film? The fantastic cinematography and pretty good music was undermined by lacklustre acting and a generally inconsistent plot that seems to be unsure of what it is ultimately trying to achieve. The premise is definitely a very interesting one, but the shortcoming of this film came in the execution. I expected Proyas, the director of 'I Robot' - a movie which I loved - to have brought better skills to the table, but unfortunately that was not the case. The only thing that I haven't said that compliments this plot is that, although many people disliked the ending, it was probably the only way to go, if the inconsistencies were omitted, of course. However, it didn't leave me hating the film, or feeling cheated like the ending of 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' did. At least this film warranted it, as anything short of it might've been dramatically unfulfilling or feel like a genuine cop-out. It was entertaining in bits, and was marred by inappropriate pacing. However, when the ending did come out, it was quite satisfying.

4/10

Cynic Flawfinder

Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations