Knowing: Now You Know Better

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Is the story far-fetched and ridiculous? Yes! Is the acting both wooden and melodramatic? Yes! Is the premise based on a vaguely ‘scientific’ idea and then pushed beyond the realms of plausibility? Yes! Does the story centre on some ordinary family (usually headed by a single parent) who just might hold the secret to Earth’s salvation? Yes! If Knowing has all these standard elements of the apocalyptic disaster movies we know and love then surely it must be just as enjoyable/terrifying/heart-wrenching, yes? No!

It’s hard to put my finger on what exactly is wrong with this picture. Needless to say Nicholas Cage displays all the charisma of a damp dish cloth—Will Smith in Independence Day he is not. And his co-star Rose Byrne isn’t exactly the feisty post-feminist heroine we have come to expect from such films; she merely wails and panics when faced with moments of grave peril. The huge action set pieces of a plane crash and subway collision are certainly terrifying but these are both dispatched with within the first half of the film, and the latter half drags by, with lots of pointless running around which does little to shock and awe the audience.

I think the main problem with this film is that it does not know what it is. I would class it as a disaster movie, but there are elements of sci-fi, Japanese horror and post-911 scare-mongering/social commentary thrown into the mix. By the time the film enters the final third the audience should feel that they are embroiled in a tense race against time to rescue humanity. Instead we feel drained and bored, and we wish Nic would hurry up and save the world or die or whatever. Furthermore, the creepy albino-looking Whisperers, who provide ample jumpy moments, and the setting in dark wooded forests have more in common with a ‘lost in the wilderness’ style horror movie than with an end-of-days apocalypse set up.

I really don’t think this film is worth more than 2 hours of your life, but if you feel compelled don’t say I didn’t warn you!