KNOWING: RANDOM NUMBERS, RANDOM FILMMAKING
April 2nd 2009 05:19
Nicholas Cage looks for his lost luggage in Knowing.
It’s a long way from the video of Don’t Dream it’s Over for director Alex Proyas; a journey that started him on feature films with the sublime gothic action of The Crow (1994), through the almost darker tech noir science fiction of Dark City (1998), and down the road to celluloid disgrace in the self-indulgent Garage Days (2002). Things stabilised somewhat for Proyas with I, Robot (2004), and now the Australian director is trying to find his groove once again with his new film, Knowing. Unfortunately, Knowing turns out to be if anything a step backwards for Proyas; a poorly made, creaking hulk, sinking under the weight of ideas loaded aboard.
In 1959, as the dedication ceremony for a newly constructed elementary school gets under way, a time capsule containing student drawings of the future is buried in the forecourt and scheduled to be unearthed on the school's 50th anniversary. Instead of submitting a drawing, however, one little girl has scribbled a series of seemingly random numbers on her paper before it is buried. Fifty years later, the time capsule is unearthed for a new generation of students to examine and the mysterious sequence of numbers falls into the hands of young Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) who in turn takes the paper to his father, Professor John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), for examination. Studying the numbers, Professor Koestler soon discovers that they aren't random at all, but an encoded message containing the precise dates and death tolls of every major disaster since the time capsule was buried. Not only that, but the document also indicates that there will be more such events. His desperate pleas to authorities falling on deaf and dubious ears, Professor Koestler realizes that his only hope for preventing more lives from being lost is to take personal action. Though the author of the prophecies has long since passed away, Professor Koestler is eventually able to track down her daughter, Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne), and granddaughter, Abby, who reluctantly agree to aid in the investigation.
Knowing does indeed start well enough. The central conceit of the coded message isn’t perhaps totally original, but Proyas is a skilled enough director to give the material significant pep and atmosphere, and in the early scenes proceedings skip along at quite a pace. There’s the cautious start of some character development too, as it’s revealed that John has recently lost his wife to a hotel fire, leaving he and Caleb reliant on each other and both father and son prone to mournful bouts of introspection.
Unfortunately, from there things start to go a little pear-shaped. John should perhaps get into football coaching; such is his ability to quickly wrangle secrets out of arcane statistics. In no time at all, the MIT professor has figured the coded paper out and is launching himself, Jackass-style, into harms way. First, there’s the spectacular crash of a commercial jet, which turns out to be one of the few occasions where a long single take has actually been used for great dramatic effect, rather than just showing-off. Later, there’s a not so effective scene featuring a friction-defying subway train. Meanwhile, the annoyingly precocious Caleb has inherited the ability to hear the ‘whispering people’ from the code and starts being visited by Kraftwerk.
'She-is-a-model-and-she's-look-ing-good.'
While the unwieldy plot – featuring curdled elements of thriller, disaster movie and sci-fi – starts to lurch from one machination to another, the characters afflicted by the events almost come to a grinding halt. Little emotion is squeezed from the father-son-lost mother dynamic of the Koestlers, while another element of scientist John being estranged from his pastor father barely registers at all. Rose Byrne looks suitably troubled, but her character of Diana is so thinly drawn she seems like she might blow away at any moment.
And so you have a film that becomes increasingly ridiculous, ridden by characters that become less and less interesting. By the time you approach the ending – which you won’t pick because you just think the filmmakers wouldn’t dare such a ham-fisted and clichéd move – you just don’t care anymore. I would have been more stimulated if the matronly box office lady had wandered into the cinema and started slapping me around a bit. It’s a shame, because things start quite well in Knowing, and Proyas’ work as director is pretty snappy throughout. The actors likewise do what they can with their underwritten characters – yes, even Nick Cage gets by with his dorky man-of-action shtick. Ultimately, Knowing’s failings can be found to have originated in the small nation of scriptwriters that worked on the thing. Screenwriting seems to be an art in retreat with regards to Hollywood funded celluloid, but there’s no excuse for the stale smorgasbord of ideas, characters and plot on offer in Knowing. It’s such a bad script that it almost totally excuses everyone else’s involvement, including Proyas - perhaps we should just hope that he reads the next one a little more carefully.
Check out the trailer for Knowing below:
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Mountain Fog
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Nic Cage really has made some abominable choices of late though. Ghost Rider is truly one of the worst films I've ever seen!
(Funnily enough I'm listening to Marco Beltrami's Knowing score CD right now - there's some brilliant music on here, I gather it's the only saving grace. Proyas does inspire composers to great heights it must be said).
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
But that's an excellent point that I neglected to write about in my review - the music is very good. Beltrami builds an excellent score around the use of the second movement from Beethoven's 7th. Nice stuff.
Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
... and for the ease of use, the code is in plain sight. OK! I'm circling numbers - whee!
For me, the film passed into unforgivable territory as it accelerates to the end.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
"Check it out Ben! I've found this code saying heaps of people are going to die!"
"Come on, Nick - you're just reading what you want here, like a craaazy person." (sticks thumbs in ears and pokes tongue out)
"No, Ben, look - it's pretty straightforward. It's just the numbers written on some paper. In fact, it's not really a code at all. I don't know why I said code."
"Nick!!! Get a hold of your--- ... Hey yeah, you're right. We don't need to work at MIT to figure this out. In fact, I don't know why we work at MIT - I can't even do long division."