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It's 1959 and a young mentally disturbed schoolgirl named Lucinda wins a competition for the
best idea as what they should do in 50 years. Lucinda suggests that the whole class should
draw a picture and place it inside a tightly sealed time capsule, so the kids 50 years later can
understand what it was like to live back in the 50s.
It's now 2009 and a partly deaf boy named Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury - Powder
Blue, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) attends his school for the ceremony opening
dayof the time capsule. Caleb is handed an envelope from Lucinda's old retired school
teacher. Opening the letter he finds several pieces of paper filled with a series of seemingly
random strings of numbers that don’t quite make much sense. Though for some strange
reason, he soon begins to hear whispering voices telling him to take the letter home, where
his father John (Nicolas Cage - National Treasure, Ghostrider) an MIT astrophysics scientist
becomes obsessed with the numbers and realises that each line of numbers has a significant
purpose as the dates and times are actually of a major disaster that has occurred in the last
50 years or is about to occur. John believes that Lucinda had the ability to foresee the
future and it’s his fate to decrypt the strings of digits within the letters to save humanity
from any more natural disasters.
Firstly I got to say Alex Proyas is one of my favourite directors of all time, and again he has
brought us another freakishly eye-opening movie that will send cold chills up any viewer’s
spine. Most directors look at a screenplay and just shoot it from a budget perspective and
don’t really give much thought for the story itself, only wanting to save as much money as
possible in the hopes of cashing in. This is where Alex Proyas really gets the upper hand as he
knows how to cater to a targeted audience, while bringing a screenplay to life, capturing
simple words from a script and projecting them into an unforgettable film that you’ll never
get bored of watching over and over again. Proyas has already proven himself in the past,
with such titles as The Crow (1996), Dark City (1998) not to mention I Robot (2004).
Knowing is another notch in this talented director’s belt, with breathtaking special/visual
effects, making you feel every split second of each impact scene, topped off with a well
picked cast to keep you highly entertained towards the rolling end credits. But like any other
movie, with the good also comes the bad, and like all ‘coming to the end’ type of films you’
ll find the usual biblical references. Once again Knowing is clustered with these damn biblical
references which from an atheist’s point of view is becoming a little stale.
Nicolas Cage is an actor I enjoy watching from time to time but there are other times I find
Cage rather annoying as his voice tone never really changes, though to be fair, Cage has
managed to creatively grow into a reasonably entertaining actor over the past 10 years. I
guess it all boils down to who is directing and writing the script. Cage’s performance in
Knowing is simply astonishing at certain times, but sadly, I kept on getting the feeling I was
watching another National Treasure film with him constantly running around solving puzzles.
But since the screenplay has a puzzle like embedded into it, Cage’s performance and the
movie actually pays off in the long run. Young cast member Chandler Canterbury is also one
talented little actor, I am pretty amazed that this little guy has only appeared in a handful of
movies. Fingers cross that Chandler lands a few more big budgets roles later down the track.
And how can I forget the beautiful Australian actress Rose Byrne (28 Weeks Later, The
Dead Girl) whose role I also thoroughly enjoyed, as her character goes from an everyday
single mother to an out-of-control frantic woman who, no matter what, will do anything to
save her child, even if the world is coming to a end. Rose Byrne has always managed to do a
remarkable job with whatever acting role is thrown her way and nails her role in the
Knowing.
As I mentioned before the special/visual effects are out of this world. Now I am not a huge
fan when it comes to movies that are heavy on the CGI but the special and visual effects
crew really out did themselves with this movie. Never in my life has my mind been blown to
the point of leaving me thinking “How the fuck did they manage to create that” so many
times in a movie. One fantastic effects scene I highly enjoyed was watching people running
around on fire, it just felt and looked so damn real. Also surprisingly the whole movie was
shot in Melbourne, Australia, using various locations to represent the film's setting, from
Boston Massachusetts. What a bonus for us Aussies….
I also have to give two thumbs up to music composer Marco Beltrami. His score for Knowing
was definitely original and the icing on the cake. Usually after I watch a movie I tend to
forget all about the score, but that wasn't the case with this movie. The score alone will
surely put Beltrami up for another Oscar as did his previous work on 3:10 to Yuma (2007).
I highly recommend you check out Knowing right now at your local cinema as soon as
possible. It has everything a viewer wants to see in a movie, it caters for the whole family
and most importantly leaves you feeling satisfied that it was well worth every dollar spent.
Though don’t forget to upgrade to the large bucket of popcorn and soda because you are
going to be needing it.
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