KNOWING Review

KNOWING is director Alex Proyas’ Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Proyas doesn’t make many movies and often takes long breaks in between but when he makes one, it’s bound to leave an impression (The Crow, Dark City, I Robot) and KNOWING is an instant cult hit. KNOWING is a… sci-fi thriller drama that grabs your attention and never lets go. It’s suspenseful, haunting, and mysterious with excellent journey into the human paranoia and our desperate need to know the future no matter how grim it might look. You don’t have to be a geek to enjoy this, just keep your mind open to the possibilities and let Proyas excite your senses.

In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead.
Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule’s contents and the girl’s cryptic message ends up in the hands of young Caleb Koestler. But it is Caleb’s father, professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As John further unravels the document’s chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events—the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve Ted and his son. When Ted’s attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.

KNOWING finally redeems Nicolas Cage who’s been attached to some pretty lame movies in recent years. In this one, he still has that The Wicker Man character that at first concerns me but as the movie progresses, I can tell that he’s very convincing and heartfelt as a dad whose loss of his wife has made him faithless and his son is the only thing that keeps him going. There’s something about characters like this that makes it easy for us to relate to, which is a big part of why Will Smith’s performance in I Am Legend was a success.

Director Alex Proyas has a special place in the hearts of geeks everywhere because he caters to this target audience and he does it well. His direction of KNOWING combines the usual overdramatic cliches like dropping the glass on the floor or Nic Cage spinning his car abruptly as he parks at the gas station with the elements of heartpounding moments before intense surprises that will keep you begging for more.
The movie has breathtaking visual effects. The plane crash and the train collision and end of the world disaster are unlike anything that anything you’ve ever seen. It’s not your typical attempts ala Roland Emmerich (Day after Tomorrow, Independence Day)
Rose Byrne who plays a single mother, might not have an extensive movie resume yet but it’s plain to see that she’s very comfortable under the direction of Proyas, to just let herself loose in the panic and fear that a mother would experience when danger is about to threaten her daughter.

Great screenplay by the team of writers including Ryne Douglas Pearson who came up with this engaging story. The dialogue might not be the most clever things you’ve heard out there but it’s not overdone either, what I appreciate is that despite how far-fetched the concept maybe, the conversations could seem like they would somehow make sense. The character development is there and well-executed, the scenes for it are appropriately placed and we understand exactly the motivation behind the actions that the characters choose to take.
I wanna give props to composer Marco Beltrami, who was Oscar nominated for 3:10 To Yuma. His original score for KNOWING is one that give you a little bit of sixth-sense and some majestic awe during the end scene.
Speaking of which, I was a bit worried when the last scene starts to reveal itself, I thought ‘o no here’s another Indiana Jones 4 fiasco’ but nope, I like how Proyas and his people architect the whole thing so that it would not look cheesy and it would still have that grand effect that will stick with you after you leave the theaters.

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