In 1959, the students of William Dawes Elementary placed their visions of the future in a time capsule to be opened 50 years later. One particularly reclusive student,
Lucinda (Lara Robinson), makes her contribution to the time capsule in the form of a page with a series of numbers scrawled on it. When the time capsule is opened, John Koestler's (Nicolas Cage) son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) receives the mysterious page. Believing the numbers to be a warning, Koestler plots out the sequence and finds each series of numbers predicts the date and place of major disasters. The predictions also include the number of lives lost in each tragedy.
Unable to explain these numbers as mere coincidence, he sets out to find the mysterious woman behind the prophetic page. What he discovers is the secret to predicting what could be the end of the world.
Director Alex Proyas has dabbled in dark themes before. His most notable work, "The Crow," gained him critical acclaim and subsequent pieces like "I, Robot" and "Dark City" have continued his sinister aesthetic. "Knowing" is no exception. Though the majority of the film takes place at night, even scenes taking place during the day feature a high contrast lighting, thus deepening the darker colors. Many scenes are almost completely obscured by the dark and give the film a deeply terrifying overall gloom.
To give credit where credit is due, Marco Beltrami contributes arguably the best score of his career. Passages of blaring bellicose brass and shrieking woodwinds create a musical soundscape that shakes the audience to its core. Even quieter pieces feature ominous overtones and dark qualities. One of Beethoven's famous funeral marches weaves into the score at key moments, emphasizing a certain sense of doom.
The last good thing to be said about the film is its cinematography. One particularly outstanding sequence features Koestler watching a plane crash in a field nearby and wandering through the burning wreckage as people die around him. The shot begins as the plane crashes and follows a bewildered Koestler into the carnage without cutting. This continuous shot not only exemplifies Proyas's outstanding ability as a cinematographer and director, but also creates the illusion of actually being at the crash site. Beyond being an astounding technical achievement the scene brands its horrific images into the audience's memory, creating a disturbing sense of shock.
Unfortunately, these things are the only grounds on which the film is to be praised. The narrative trajectory builds the audiences expectations and follows up with a weak pay off. Blending quasi-religious elements with an "E.T." motif, the film tries to blaze a new trail by suggesting what has traditionally been considered the "spiritual realm" is nothing more than space-alien activity. The film also reshapes the idea of an angel as a humanoid alien creature from space. Apart from shredding elements of nearly every major world religion, this "twist" seems like more of a cop-out than anything else. It also draws from C.S. Lewis' "Space Trilogy;" a series of books written before the age of space exploration and are thus outdated and misinformed yet imaginative.
"Knowing" may have been more accurately named "The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle Marvin the Martian." The film features some dazzling visual effects and an amazing score. But the generally lackluster performances by the cast fail to persuade the audience to willingly suspend a severely dissatisfied sense of disbelief. With or without religious views of any kind, it's doubtful "Knowing" will impress audiences.
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