one word can describe this movie for non Bible-thumpers: cracked

Rating: 5/10 (28 March 2009)

Attending a Saturday night screening for Knowing in its second weekend of release I noticed that the theater was fully packed. My first thought was that since it is a Nicolas Cage movie and from the commercials and previews looks to be pretty blockbuster-action style stuff happening that it might make for a good weekend night viewing. But as the movie went into its last couple of reels I had to wonder: did these folks really know what they were getting into here? Did they realize beforehand, and approve, of how much Knowing takes its BIG plot points and some of its themes from Revelations and Genesis? Or that for most of the running time what's going on takes such a giant leap from science-fiction into conspiracy-nut territory? It's hard not to talk about what happens in the ending, but I may have to by the end of this review. First a summary: a widowed MIT professor (Nicolas Cage, a usually good actor looking faker every movie with his cropped plant hair and plastic surgery) looks at a page that his son got from an "unearthing" of a Time Capsule that an elementary school left underground for 50 years to be discovered in present day. The page is just numbers, but there's a pattern. It's freaky: the numbers signal catastrophes (i.e. 9/11 with 2996 people dead), and it leads to other possibilities, such as what the other numbers that seem to not pose any kind of meaning at all mean - and it leads, eventually, to Cage discovering what it all leads to...
Yup, you guessed it, end of the world. Not just Earth but all planets in the our solar system. The frustrating thing though in Knowing is that for at least a short while there is some promise in the material. Sure, it's kooky to see Cage going through all those numbers like a nut - it makes the Number 23 look almost reasonable in comparison - but Alex Proyas, the director, makes things tense and strange and possibly leading to something complex. In fact the first half contains a relatively awesome sequence: Cage is stuck in traffic and an airplane crashes right across the highway, and he runs through the wreckage with people burning and flailing about and it's all in one shot. Some may not notice that it is all in one shot, which makes it all the more remarkable a feat of direction (the visual FX are compelling too); it's practically Children of Men amazement in terms of a single visual demonstration of a nightmare on film.
But then as more of the plot unfolds - it would appear as if the grown-up kids from Twilight are after Cage's son, not a good actor at all I should add, for some reason and even give him a vision of hell that is half nifty and half bat-s*** crazy, and it also involves a small black stone - it becomes silly in some part (it doesn't help that Cage has moments of total calamity as an actor like when he's swinging the bat wildly or is totally bland in quieter scenes), and in large part just... I don't know what. It's leading to something that should be either a wild revelation or so preposterous that it makes the last four or five of Cage's movies (i.e. Wicker Man, Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous) look sane and easy in comparison. Turns out, you'll either be in awe- and you know who you are (i.e. Christian wackos, Rogert Ebert)- or scratching your head.
I was in the latter, but there's some sliver of me that wishes I wasn't just nearly losing it, laughing in my seat while everyone else was calm and accepting what was going on in front of them. There is some potential here to become a camp hit, something that would give the Mystery Science Theater guys a run for their money with the commentary. But it takes itself so seriously, and also has some scenes and sequences of actual good, intelligent direction from Proyas and his FX crew, that it turns into what it is: another Nic Cage movie mess that ends on such a note to make both Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky raise up their pitchforks and scream ENOUGH! LEAVE THE SUN AND THE TREE OF LIFE ALONE! If you're looking for it to be something totally wild and unhinged at least for the last quarter you'll get your money's worth. If you're looking for another masterpiece from the director of the Crow and Dark City (or for that matter Cage's big-budget comeback), look elsewhere.