Knowing (2009)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  4 / 10

  Knowing unknowingly succumbs to plot implausibilities and conveniences. This is another case of an interesting premise being weighted down by terrible writing. Proyas has an acute eye for visually arresting set pieces, but unfortunately these can't disguise the ironically predictable plot conveniences that will roll your eyes the other way. A cosmologist/astronomer/professor/father attends his son's school ceremony where he receives a mysterious note from a time capsule. Cage, in all of his craziness, starts to uncover what this string of numbers represents. Predictions for global disasters. Attempting to prevent these, he soon starts travelling to the recorded coordinates...only for him to simply witness the havoc. Look, I like the concept of determinism and theories of fate, but this does nothing with them. Taking intelligent philosophies and turning it into a heavy-handed blockbuster that lacks both emotional conviction and engaging storytelling. There are enough conveniences here to produce a solar flare and incinerate a planet. Such a coincidence that the one note predicting disasters is given to Cage's son, whose father teaches determinism as a career, where he places a dirty mug on the paper which circles a select sequence of numbers that highlights the 9/11 attack, leading to Cage to actually Google "9/11/2001". Such a coincidence that the first disaster he encounters is by accident as he impatiently sits in traffic staring at the coordinates, meaning he was in the right place at the right...by mistake. Such a coincidence that "EE" means "Everyone Else" instead of writing the actual figure of the world's population. Seriously, take some time to dissect the film and you'll realise how absurd the plot is. Credit to Cage and Byrne who do give some credible performances, but the script disabled all emotional responses. The inevitable demise of Earth makes for a broody serious tone, and it works. However the thematic allegory of family can't quite breach the dark narrative. I'm still not convinced by the ending, doesn't sit right with me. Good premise, bad film.

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