Not KNOWING What It Wanted To Be

Rating: 4/10 (5 April 2009)

As most of my criticisms of this movie have to do with its details and plot points, writing a review devoid of spoilers was tricky, but I did my best.
Nic Cage's film choices, and acting style, and general appearance over the last five years are all good for our amusement, but it's been what, 15 years since he won an Oscar and about 10 since he was nominated. I saw "Knowing" because a friend paid for it.
Having said that, I was very into the movie right from the beginning. The scenes set in the 1950's were alright, the cinematography and score reminded me of a more traditional sci-fi movie, taking some chances with the narrative style and trying to unsettle the viewer. I was ready to dismiss the movie as a serious one and mock it, but it didn't let me. It was a good movie.
Nic Cage works as a Professor at M.I.T. in Astrophysics (or something), and this is where the film starts getting lazy. He explains Determinism vs. Random Chance as though this class full of MIT students are 4th graders. This is linked not-so-subtly with his state of mind at this point in his life, having lost someone very close to him. Without getting into too much detail, his son receives the sheet of paper with numbers, numbers of great significance, written by a little girl in 1959. What follows is a standard investigative story, complete with cover-ups, suspicious deaths, abandoned homes, children bearing the burden of their parents' abnormalities, and mute albinos in trench-coats.
What doesn't work for me, chiefly, is that I don't understand what I'm meant to get out of this movie. The special effects are quite good, and the scenes in which they're used are shocking and effective (pardon the pun), but I think the movie missed a few chances to deviate from a predictable, ultimately lazy, somewhat nonsensical path. Nic Cage knows about upcoming disasters, and he kind of limps through the motions of trying to influence their occurring, but not really. He makes a couple anonymous phone calls, hits a tree with a baseball bat, gets a revolver, and falls to his knees. Rose Byrne, in yet another thankless end-of-the-world supporting role, spends most of the movie looking distraught, haunted and helpless, and at one point literally yells, "We Have To Save The Children!" I was not the only one in the theater who laughed.
For most of the film, the main investigation is concerned with details so finite and exact, that the "startling revelation" and its aftermath, the intentions of the mysterious beings and their identities, the "solution" to it all, feels very carelessly or vaguely put together. It's a surprisingly sentimental conclusion, but instead of finding the meaning in all of the events, I left with the opposite feeling. I felt as though the characters didn't influence anything with their knowledge, which is ironic considering the title.
This reminded me a lot of I Am Legend: both start out good, drawing me in with quality effects, cinematography, score, and mood. Ultimately, however, both cash in on the intriguing premise and setup with a conclusion so (overly) simple, that rather than appreciate the symbolism and beauty of it, I'm left to wonder what the point was, and if there weren't too many "chefs in the kitchen" as far as the message of the film is concerned.
The only thing I know we're meant to understand is that Nic Cage is the "Cynic Who Rediscovers His Faith Amidst Disaster," and I've just seen that before in Independence Day, Signs, I Am Legend, etc. Hard to say I was disappointed because I didn't have much hope for this movie, but it was surprisingly entertaining until its frustrating end.