Nicholas Cage’s last few films have made me laugh out loud, and not because they were intentionally funny. But what I saw from Knowing left me breathless, disturbed, and, maybe, terrified. And it’s not because the special effects were lame (they were) or because the movie was slow (it was) but because the movie’s vision of the future, while distorted, has reflective elements of an apocalyptic end-of-days scenario. And I just couldn’t find the hope.
Watching the movie, and even reading through many of the responses of the director, Ryne Douglas Pearson, I found myself immensely unsatisfied. While I understand that Pearson has a Catholic background (and I’ve recently raved about the Catholic-influenced fiction, Doubt) I found some disturbing “leaps” in Knowing that I don’t think are justifiably explained or dealt with to my satisfaction. It’s not a bad movie, though, and it’s not without faith. Who knows, maybe I just didn’t like what I found reflected back there.
Cage’s Professor Koestler is an atheist who continues to struggle with the death of his wife, and the mother of his son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury). After a time capsule gets opened, we find that Caleb is one of the few people who can hear the Whisper People/Strangers. We’ve already witnessed a small girl go crazy a generation earlier in the introductory prelude, and there’s always the potential that Caleb will, too. But soon, “I don’t believe in anything” Koestler ends up realizing that the numbers his son ends up “hearing” are all part of a warning about natural and manmade disasters from the past century.
Fastforward to the end of the story (major spoilers) and we discover that the Whisper People are there to save the children, but not Koestler senior. And not “everyone else.” So, what we’re left with, as the world burns, is an alien race who saves two children (a boy and a girl) and creates a new Eden on a different planet after absolute world destruction. Of course, there’s a poignant moment between Koestler and his pastor father, where the father says something like, “this isn’t the end,” and Koestler (the middle) says, “I know.” So, we’re supposed to recognize that the professor is now a person of faith, having seen the way the world goes down.
So Koestler believes in what, exactly? Aliens abduct the children and “reboot” the world. Is that really what we see about the end of this world and the beginning of the next? It seems like that’s more “karma reality,” where people are reborn. Or maybe it’s an Old Testament version, with spaceships instead of arks, as a present day Adam and Eve become Noah (they’re pure; they actually listen to the message) and become something better. But what future life, what heaven, does that allow for the adults who are destroyed? And how does that impact the faith of Professor Koestler’s father, and the sparing of those who already believe?
So, don’t consider me a Knowing “hater,” or disbeliever, just a skeptic. I don’t think the analogy is perfect here, or even flawed, but instead, distorted. So, I’d preach caution on this one, in reading in too much about faith, and ask, “Where’s the hope?”
September 21st, 2009 at 11:54 pm
To the contrary I believe that there is hope found in the movie. First is John’s obvious change in his perspective regarding the view of randomness versus determination (which I interpret to mean that events are ”used” for the purpose as part of a divine plan ). Both require belief but randomness is the ultimate in hopelessness that things just happen for no purpose or meaning, even bad things which is what John is wrestling with in his sprirt. I personally understand that there is randomness within the context of God’s bigger plan and purpose, but that God can use these things, both good and bad, that happen as a result of our free will choice.
The reason the John agrees to the match making dinner invite from his associate (which seems like a minor point) and in the end is able to let his son go with the whispers, who could be divine angles coming to gather a remnant for God’s creation, is he has come to the realization that things of this world are not totally random and without purpose. That if some human is able to communicate world events precisely then there must be a divine plan, it’s the only plausible reason. So with this understanding he can trust in things that he might not fully understand.
I realize that the movie portrays the whispers as aliens and with the appearance of an apparent spaceship this might seem obvious. However a couple of points on the whispers 1.) Aliens would not be able to know future events any more than any other being; this is reserved for the divine and 2.) The reference to the picture of Ezekiel and the wheel at trailer. These are some points that I believe at least allows the audience to interpret them as something else other than aliens, perhaps angels. To me this is like the movie Contact where Ellie experiences her encounter after her travel thru space. Was that her father or was it an alien in the image of her father?
However these are secondary points, but the biggest hope is at the end when John concurs with his father (whom he had been at odds with) as they embrace that “this is not the end”… In the randomness view there is no hope beyond what we try to control ourselves however at this point John has relinquished control of his destiny over to a higher power.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 am
Hey Mark,
I can certainly see where you’re coming from, and that is definitely a different take on the aliens/whispers of God. I think the illustration is much more direct in Contact– I can’t say that I’ve ever considered Ellie’s experience to be one of an alien “playing” her father. To me, that would seem a bit more on the deceptive side. But I can accept that John makes peace in Knowing. Thanks for writing in!