Films: Knowing

Film: Knowing (2009)
Dir. Alex Proyas
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson

The trailer for this film made me think 'big Hollywood end-of-the-world disaster movie only to be solved by an American hero.' How wrong could I be?

The basic premise of the story is that, in a time capsule buried in the 1950s, a young girl cursed by whispered voices in her head has left behind a double page of seemingly unrelated numbers. John Koestler (Nick Cage) is a widowed scientist who happens upon the numbers, and begins to find strange patterns within them. The code tells of 5 decades of human suffering and death, including the date in which his own wife died in a hotel fire. There are three dates remaining so John takes it upon himself to prove the code right, and save some lives in the process. His young son gets dragged in to the nightmare, along with the little girl's now grown up daughter (Rose Byrne) and her own child (Robinson). The film follows John as he begins to find reason and order in a world which he previously thought was random and coincidental.

Knowing is full of bone chilling moments of suspense, particularly with the recurring presence of a group of whispering, shadow-faced men in trench coats. The visual effects are stunning, and will ultimately be lost on the small screen once this film makes it to dvd. It is a barrage of sounds and images which come at you from every angle, and when you are least expecting it. Cage gives a heartbreakingly convincing performance as the unlucky and tortured soul dealing with his wife's death, his son's apparent connection with another world, and the impending end of his own.

This film is a cinema must-see. Stay with it. I almost lost heart at certain points, one of which was the prelude to the ending. But I stuck with it, and left the cinema reeling with excitement and questions. The film's message is a baffling one and perhaps not always completely clear unless you have some knowledge of Old Testament bible imagery, of which there is plenty. However, it is a great talking point, well acted and spectacularly shot.

My rating: **** 4/5 stars
Reccommendation: Try and catch this before it leaves the cinema. Otherwise watch it with the surround sound fully turned up! Be patient and give it a chance. You'll be hooked.