Knowing Review
Knowing has been talked about by some critics as an early front runner for worst movie of the year.
Here’s why that’s so off-base I can’t even fathom it.
The movie’s about Nicolas Cage (playing an MIT professor) finding a list of numbers that predict disasters and trying to do something about fate, basically. He has a lecture to a group of students where he talks about determinism vs. randomness, and that’s a big part of what the movie is about.
A lot of criticism of the film has commented the plot is “preposterous”. Listen, I attended a supposedly good school for over a decade and will have my Bachelor’s degree in a few months. I got a 1370 out of 1600 on the old SAT. Hopefully all of this means I am not a complete moron. I cannot for the life of me deduce why this plot is called “preposterous”. I’ve seen plenty of movies with plots filled with gaping plot holes and gaps in logic, and this is not one of them. Are the things that happen pretty wild and out-there? Yes. Is this a work of science fiction and fantasy? Yes. You wouldn’t call the plot of Star Wars or Peter Pan preposterous.
The movie is directed by Alex Proyas, who made the better Dark City and the worse I, Robot. Knowing is far more ambitious and bold than the latter.
Speaking of which, I’ve read talk of the film as “unoriginal”. Really?
HUGE SPOILER-ONLY READ AFTER SEEING FILM
This movie ends with the apocalypse. I’m not kidding. Literally the apocalypse, all of mankind is destroyed. When was the last time you saw that in a major feature film? Let me tell you, pretty much never and certainly not in my lifetime that I can recall.
END HUGE SPOILER
For non-spoiling purposes, I’ll just say that criticism completely ignores the end of the film.
Listen, in general Nicolas Cage doesn’t make that many good movies anymore. In movies like Knowing he feels like a caged tiger, almost dutifully going through the motions. This is not a showcase role for him (grieving widow father), but he does well enough with it not to detract from the film.
Proyas also stages some impressive scenes of destruction, one plane crash in particularl noticeably done in one take. It’s been fairly pointed out the CGI in these scenes is just ok, but again, it’s not so bad it detracts from the movie. These scenes are tense and gripping and do keep your attention.
Stylewise the film is gloomy and occasionally in love with fog, but a pretty straightforward film visually (until the end) as compared to Proyas’ more visually decadent Dark City.
But where the film really stands out is in its naked message about faith. This is a movie that will play better to religious people. No question. But there’s a boldness and ambition to what Proyas is going for here that I found refreshing and wonderful.
HUGE SPOILER AGAIN
At the end Cage’s kid and another child are lifted off Earth and transported to a new Earth to start over, there’s even a glowing tree. Meanwhile Earth ends in apocalypse. We end with the kids starting over in their new world. The entire movie has been a journey towards faith for Cage’s character, who didn’t really believe in anything at the beginning of the movie. In a lot of ways this is comparable to Signs in that regard.
I think it’s a really powerful message about faith, and I was impressed Proyas got to do this in a big mainstream release. Is the message maybe a bit muddled? Sure. Does the whole movie flow and coalesce into one clear point? Not really.
But I’ll take a movie like this, one with huge balls that maybe doesn’t totally succeed, over some lifeless piece of “safe” studio trash anyday.
When this movie revealed itself, and we saw angels and apocalypse and the new world, I experienced a sense of wonder. I took that journey. And isn’t that what going to the movies is all about?
END SPOILER
See this movie and decide for yourself
You may find you disagree with the critics, I did.
-Dan Benamor