Knowing...or Not
Knowing turned out to be a case of: "Thanks for trying to tell me, but I’d rather not know..."
Knowing is about a widowed (and really clever) MIT professor John Koestler, played by Nicolas Cage, who stumbles upon a letter handed to his son from a re-opened time capsule at his school. The letter has been sealed for 50 years and after some epic number crunching, Koestler discovers that the letter full of streaming numbers accurately predicting the date of every major catastrophe and relating fatalities in perfect sequence.
Before we get to what this means and what the following three sets of data represent, we learn of Koestler's struggle with his father’s strong religious beliefs. He instead opts for science and believes that not all things happen for a reason, and in fact believes there is no meaning at all.
After learning about his family history, we finally get to Koestler attempting to save the world. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great actions sequences in this film, moments that scare you like a good horror should, and some interesting philosophical questions. But taking a bit from this film and a bit from that film and putting it together with the only actor with less on-screen emotion than Keanu Reeves doesn’t really help the film. In the end I couldn’t work out if the moral of the film was that we don’t know, or whether the film was severely lacking in ‘finish’, and thus rather pointless.
Instead, I implore you to watch the 1951 original of The Day the Earth Stood Still. If you have a phobia of black and white, then watch last year’s remake with said actor Keanu Reeves. (It's not terrible since he doesn’t require on-screen emotion as he’s an alien.) Here you will get real questions, real morals, and real consequences to our (human) actions to the environment. A far superior film, it poses a true dilemma in the perfect manner and leaves it for you to ponder the outcome.
All in all, Knowing only became interesting when I came across all the religious undertones and subtle analogies to biblical references. And if you do give Knowing a go, you’ll probably immerse yourself in these film conspiracy threads more than you'll what happened in the film!
Before we get to what this means and what the following three sets of data represent, we learn of Koestler's struggle with his father’s strong religious beliefs. He instead opts for science and believes that not all things happen for a reason, and in fact believes there is no meaning at all.
After learning about his family history, we finally get to Koestler attempting to save the world. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great actions sequences in this film, moments that scare you like a good horror should, and some interesting philosophical questions. But taking a bit from this film and a bit from that film and putting it together with the only actor with less on-screen emotion than Keanu Reeves doesn’t really help the film. In the end I couldn’t work out if the moral of the film was that we don’t know, or whether the film was severely lacking in ‘finish’, and thus rather pointless.
Instead, I implore you to watch the 1951 original of The Day the Earth Stood Still. If you have a phobia of black and white, then watch last year’s remake with said actor Keanu Reeves. (It's not terrible since he doesn’t require on-screen emotion as he’s an alien.) Here you will get real questions, real morals, and real consequences to our (human) actions to the environment. A far superior film, it poses a true dilemma in the perfect manner and leaves it for you to ponder the outcome.
All in all, Knowing only became interesting when I came across all the religious undertones and subtle analogies to biblical references. And if you do give Knowing a go, you’ll probably immerse yourself in these film conspiracy threads more than you'll what happened in the film!
Here Is The Writer : Omer Bhatti
Omer Bhatti, Head Sales Trader of WorldSpreads and markets commentator during the week, is always happy to go to a cushy cinema and devour films on the weekend. No film is ruled out, be it French film noir, Hollywood CGI action, or Japanese Manga. Look to Omer for input on where to go and what to see, whether it’s for a first date, family outing, Sunday recovery session, or guy's - or girl's - night out. (Just don't make him watch Sex & the City again.)
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