KNOWING - Review!
April 1st 2009 15:30
RUNNING TIME: 122 minutes
CAST:
Nicolas Cage – John Koestler
Rose Byrne – Diana Wayland
Chandler Canterbury – Caleb Koestler
Lara Robinson – Lucinda Embry, Abby Wayland
Ben Mendelsohn – Phil Beckman
Nadia Townsend – Grace Koestler
Danielle Carter – Miss Taylor (1959)
DIRECTOR: Alex Proyas
WRITING CREDITS: Alex Proyas
DISTRIBUTOR: ICON FILM DISTRIBUTION
SYNOPSIS: What happens when the numbers run out? Nicolas Cage stars as the the professor who stumbles upon terrifying predictions about the future and sets out to try to prevent them from coming though.
Fifty years earlier a young girls contribution to a time capsule to be planted in a Boston schoolyard consists of a series of numbers with no natural meaning. When the capsule is finally opened in present day, Boston, it is the professor’s son who is the recipient of this cryptic message, which unbeknown holds messages for the future. But it is Calebs father who begins to unravel the mystery of the numbers and soon he realises that all numbers are accounted for but three……
Can John Koestler keep his promise to his son and protect him from harm? Within days it has become obvious that these final three events will occur within the next week and Koestler is racing against time to find the answers.
Soon it becomes evident that both children’s destinies are already mapped out and nothing can be done.
REVIEW:
Nicolas Cage
The main themes throughout the film seem implausible and nonsensical. It is difficult to suspend your belief long enough to believe that all these events could occur simultaneously in such a brief period of time. With 2 hours to tell the story, why does everything happen so quickly? Surely this could have been told over a extended period of time. It might have made it a little easier to sit through.
Cage offers very little to his character. Attempting to channel ever so slightly his academy winning performance from LEAVING LAS VEGAS all those years ago in his attempt to portray a husband still racked with grief over the loss of his wife, and continually turning to the bottle to escape his pain, it is hard to feel sorry for the man’s loss.
By the end of the film all you want is for him to go away. The final scenes become more and more ridulous as he winds his way through the streets of Boston to make it home to his estranged family and his all forgiving Reverand father. Cage’s recent film choices and performances have been on the downslide since his Oscar® for LLV in 1995 and it shows in this film. His performance looks half hearted as he fumbles his way through the film.
Rose Byrne
While the performances of the two child actors is on the whole worthwhile and Mendelsohn’s brief screen time is also worthy of commendation, the film on a whole is too fanciful and far-fetched especially for a drama.
Proyas’ resume would suggest a better effort than the one here. With successes including THE CROW, DARK CITY and I ROBOT behind him the accomplished director has missed the mark on this one. But while there is still a future, there is hope.
RANKING 4/10
SJC 200309
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