Who Scribbled The Script?
Written: May 09 '09 (Updated May 09 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cage is fun to watch, even in schlock like this.
Cons: Not scary, just really dumb. It's more of an unintended comedy.
The Bottom Line: This movie is so bad, it's funny.
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| bilavideo's Full Review: Knowing |
Nicolas Cage is one of my favorite actors. Some people who don't get why this guy is a leading man, but Cage evokes a certain flavor of angst you just can't get from a field full of pretty boys. Then again, Cage's choices are a mixed bag. Where other actors have the luxury of playing it safe, Cage swings for the fences. Sometimes, he hits a home run. Sometimes, he strikes out. This time around, I believe he hit the ball but where it went is anybody's guess.
Knowing is a film about a man who sees signs that the end of the world is near. Like the Mel Gibson character in Signs, he's a widower who has rejected the world of faith. In this case, he's a professor of astrophysics at MIT. Back in 1959, students at a neighborhood school filled up a time capsule. Their contributions included a paper full of numeric gibberish submitted by one Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson), a troubled little girl who ended up a troubled adult. Fifty years later, when the time capsule is opened, little Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) brings home the same document, which ends up in the hands of his father, John (Nicolas Cage). From the moment he lays eyes on it, Koestler is obsessed with its patterns. Where others see a math homework from Hell, Dr. Koestler sees dates, directions and death tolls.
Koestler's crisis feels like a cross between Signs and numerologic thrillers like The Number 23. When Koestler shows his findings to a colleague, he's laughed off. Numerology, he is reminded, is a dead end, precisely because people see what they want to see. But Koestler becomes a believer when the numbers help him predict the date, time and location of the next disaster. Convinced there's something to this, Koestler goes in search of Abby Wayland (also played by Lara Robinson), the daughter of Lucinda Embry. Koestler is looking for answers. Abby is just looking to be left alone.
1 3 2 5 7 6 9 9 3 5 4 6 1 1 3 2 5 2 7 8 5 5 6 3 4 2 4 3 6 6 7 5 8
2 4 5 3 6 8 2 3 1 9 1 2 4 5 2 3 6 4 5 3 1 2 2 7 5 6 8 7 9 2 3 1 5
4 2 3 5 4 6 5 7 B 3 U 3 5 L 4 L 3 3 S 3 H 9 I 9 T 6 5 7 8 6 7 2 4
(I just threw that in there to see if you could figure out what happens next.)
In a profession where actors use one role to avoid being typecast for another, it's curious that Cage picked this role so soon after Next, where he played a stage performer who also sees into the future - though only his own future and only two minutes ahead. Whatever his reasons, Cage imparts to this role a kind of angst you don't see from Mark Wahlberg in The Happening. That's the good news. For people who like Cage, you almost can't get a bad Nicolas Cage movie, but I must admit: I'm talking about performances, not writing. Cage could stand on stage and recite the phone book and still make it interesting.
But the storyline - from the script by Ryne Douglas Pearson (Mercury Rising) and Juliet Snowden & Stiles White (Boogeyman) - is too similar to recent offerings, including The Day The Universe Stood Still, and it's frankly too stupid to evoke much more than snickers. Where it takes us is both weird and unsatisfying. As a kind of B-flick, I accepted it for what it was and tried to enjoy it on that level, but as the film proceeded to its climax and resolution, it felt like it was both on autopilot and that somebody had hacked the autopilot to send the plane right into a mountain. By film's end, the result is not merely bad. It's catastrophic. It's the kind of project that mimicks the plot of The Producers (Make something so bad, nobody will ask for a piece of the profits).
Not since Gigli have I found myself so fascinated by the trainwreck that I could neither "leave nor believe." If you're looking for a possible Razzie, this one is it. If Cage doesn't at least get a nomination, I'll eat my hat. In fact, on that level, I'm going to recommend this film, not as a thriller so much as a comedy. Get your friends together - frat buddies if you can find 'em - and rent this sucker. Make sure you have plenty to eat and drink. Every time this film does something stupid, take a swig, put a chip into some dip, and find your inner three-year-old. You won't be disappointed. If you could do it through Cat Woman, you can certainly do it here.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Scary Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot
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Epinions.com ID:
bilavideo
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Member: Bill Kilpatrick
Location: The geographic center of the theater.
Reviews written: 714
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Screenwriter
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