Nicolas Cage’s capacity to act as though he’s constantly living the
most agonizing moment of his life is at least justified in
Knowing.
As astronomer John Koestler, he’s set off when his son’s
grade-school class unearths a 1959 time capsule of students’ future
predictions. The seemingly random series of scrawled numbers that his
son received is, John is convinced, dates of Earthly disasters over the
past 50 years, and a prediction of more tragedy to come.
Director Alex Proyas takes a premise reminiscent of The Number
23, with the faithless hero aspect of Signs, and turns it
into compelling Doomsday pulp. At least until it gets insulting. Proyas
is a skilled filmmaker who has never equalled the atmosphere of his
’90s pop-art benchmarks The Crow and Dark City. The rock
comedy Garage Days didn’t deliver a single memorable song. And
I, Robot only worked in pieces.
Despite Cage’s weirdo charisma, and some well-visualized moments,
Knowing hasn’t many surprises left once its solid premise is
established. What remains is a conclusion that echoes the religious
fear-mongering of Kirk Cameron’s Left Behind films. Real science
fiction is about how human behaviour is affected once the variables
around us change; it’s an atheistic genre. Knowing starts as a
goofy head-trip, and then just gets goofy.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2009.