Knowing


I’ve sat in films and found myself giggling at seriousness in the face of stupidity before (Anti-Trust), I’ve sat dumbstruck by a film’s awfulness incapable of even laughing at it (The Happening) and I’ve loved films for being awful (Bride oOf The Monster); but there are times when I don’t know why I’m at odds with what I feel is the general consensus. Behind me in the screening I saw of Knowing, the new film from the director of The Crow, Dark City and I,Robot, was a man who had a laugh that sounded like someone who wants people to know he’s laughing at something, and as I stood to leave the cinema once the credits rolled he said to his friend ‘I didn’t know we’d come to see a comedy!’ Upon hearing this I was a tad confused because the film I’d just watched was actually, surprisingly entertaining.

Perhaps it’s the problem of casting Nicolas Cage in a film after a run of just-plain-awful or unintentionally-funny misfires like Next, Ghost Rider and The Wicker Man remake; now people expect him to be making bad choices, acting terribly and sporting dodgy hair-pieces. Admittedly Cage does fudge a few emotional moments here, but generally this is the best Nicolas Cage film in a very long time. This is also the best Alex Proyas film since Dark City. This is also one of the best original sci-fi movies to come along in a while, and, boy, is this sci-fi. This is sci-fi as in pure, 1950’s Twilight Zone/The Outer Limits big-idea sci-fi and it even gets quite pulpy in its execution and these are the reasons why I feel some audience members may find themselves unsure of how to take the film and may end up laughing.

The trailers have sold Knowing as a very straight numbers = disasters thriller in a similar vein to a lot of the big twist movies that occured as a result of Shyamalan, and yes, on one hand, it is that movie to begin with; however Proyas very quickly, and carefully, starts layering in a multitude of elements that play out over the film to help it become something quite different. To say much more would be detrimental to the film, but I must argue that it’s a shame that people can applaud the generally lazy, unimaginative writing that goes into general Hollywood popcorn fare and then deride a film-maker trying to tackle something experimental yet still entertaining. Proyas does an excellent job of cranking up the impending dread and delivers some bravura disaster sequences, hampered a little by the so-so CGI; but this is a film that was made on $50,000,000 – a quarter of most tent-pole releases. What this film retains though that the larger budget movies lack is a vision, a voice and I am quite shocked that I already feel prepared to turn around to the gigglers and vociferously defend a Nicolas Cage movie!



4/5

© BRWC 2010.


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Alton loves film. He is founder and Editor In Chief of BRWC.  Some of the films he loves are Rear Window, Superman 2, The Man With The Two Brains, Clockwise, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Trading Places, Stir Crazy and Punch-Drunk Love.

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