Know1ng When to Quit

Knowing, or Know1ng as it's called in its promotional title, is a cerebral thriller that is never lacking in twists, turns, and surprises. As a member of the thriller family, it isn't an exceptional movie. Children hear voices, planes fall from the sky, creepy men in black trench coats drive around in an old car handing people strange objects.

The movie can, however, lay claim to a truly exceptional ending in that it will leave viewers talking about it... perhaps not in a good way. I left the cinema feeling that I had been cheated in some way. I turned to my fellow moviegoers, and all I could say was, "Really? I mean...really?" My experience with this movie is not a unique example. As the credits rolled, the man behind me said, "The director must have been on crack when he wrote that ending."

The director may have also been in this state when he decided to cast Nicholas Cage as the leading man. Director and producer Alex Proyas, who has directed 15 films (including his only well-known movie, I Robot), displayed either brilliant or mediocre casting.






Cage's performance in the movie is startlingly similar to his roles in the National Treasure movies. Instead of searching for buried treasure in an Indiana Jones-esque way, he is trying to save the world. Instead of following clues about United States history that no man could possibly know, he is following a set of numbers.

As the movie opens (in the 1950's), a time capsule is buried at a school. It contains a letter writen by each student about their views of the future. Most kids draw pictures. One child writes an entire page of nonstop numbers. Fifty years later, when the capsule is opened, a father, Nicholas Cage, takes his son to the commemorative unburying of the capsule. The son, of course, ends up with the numbers. Nicholas Cage, of course, cracks the code.

Knowing has haunted me for several weeks after viewing it, and I wouldn't consider myself one of the faint of heart. But it wasn't the intense action, the doomsday images, the creepy children who hear voices, or Nicholas Cage's ghost of a repeat perforamce that sent chills down my spine.

There is a nameless character, only referred to as The Stranger in the credits, who constantly appears throughout the movie. Who he actually is is up for debate (refer to comments above concerning the ending of the movie). He is played by D.G. Maloney and was cast, I'm convinced, only because he is the scariest human being alive.

I'm not sure what disturbed me more: his role in the movie or the fact that there really is someone out there who looks that creepy. Maloney has appeared in only one other movie: Eternity Man. Where Proyas failed in his casting of Cage, he excelled in his casting of Maloney. Well done, Mr. Proyas, and bravo. We're all officially scared.

As for Cage's performance, it would certainly win an Oscar were there a category called "Best Harrison Ford Imitation." However, it isn't Cage's mediocre performance that will have audiences chattering: sorry, Nicholas Cage, but you've been outshined by a scary minor character and some kids who hear voices.