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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