Knowing (2009)

Film 4: Knowing (2009) directed by Alex Proyas and starting Nicolas as Nicolas Cage. Does he ever play anyone else? Well, sometimes he’s an astrophysicist, and why does he have to be an astrophysicist? Well, he needs to be a character that asks his students about why we’re all here, what’s it all about and say things like did you know if it was a few degrees higher or lower, or if the gravitational pull of the sun, blah, blah, and back to what’s it all about? With a Nicolas Cage you always get a moment when he stands with his mouth open and doesn’t dribble. The difference between knowing and known is one is travelling towards the other. Knowing towards known and in between is the unknown. But what if, what if…some wacky woman had written it all down and put it in a hole in the ground…and fifty years later when the time capsule is opened up Nicolas’s son gets this letter from the past. Why Nicolas’s son you might ask. Well, that’s all to do with the whisperers. Whisperers are annoying people that should really speak up or shut up. It’s not clear here whether they are good guys or bad. It’s just their job to whisper. And they aren’t just whispering to Nicolas’s son, they are also whispering to the grand-daughter of the crazy woman. Nicolas being an astrophysicist knows about numbers and the patterns they make on pages. But, he’s a bit maudlin, and obviously an alcoholic as he’s seen drinking alone! What if crazy woman wasn’t so crazy, what if she was trying to tell him something and it was all in a kind of code a five year old could work out? Nicolas proves to himself that not only is crazy woman not crazy, he isn’t either. The golden rule in writing is show don’t tell. In movies it’s multiplied by the power of budget. Just when Nicolas figures that the numbers crazy woman wrote aren’t just the dates and number of dead in each catastrophe he realizes the other numbers are longitude and latitude and not only that his ass is sitting on those self-same digits. Just then a plane flies past on fire, its wings clipping the interstate bridge he’s on and bursts into flames. Brilliant. How do you top that misunderstanding? Well, how about a subway train careering through a station and cleaning out everyone as it jumps track and demolish a subway station. Those whisperers had a lot to answer for. It’s premier league stuff now. Only a crash involving the end of the world could top that. Would you Adam and Eve it those whisperers are really angels come to take away Nicolas’s son and crazy woman’s granddaughter and make a new start on another planet were the golden triangle of interplanetary conditions are just right. Nicolas just has time to go home to be with his dad, who is a pastor. Nicolas in now a believer and even if he isn’t he’s clam-bake. I really enjoyed this film. Glad to see it make such a substantial profit and it’s based on a true story. I know crazy woman.