Trust me – you’re better off not Knowing…

I’ve just watched one of the most confusing films I’ve ever seen.

It wasn’t Memento or Inception confusing – nor in fact was it on the same plane as Adam ‘Holy Moly! How did this get made??’ Sandler confusing – but suffice to say, sense is one thing it just did not make.

The film, ironically enough, was ‘Knowing’ – you know, that 2009 Nicolas Cage film where he plays a guy in a place looking for some stuff to help him stop something…y’know? Oh, you don’t know? My bad. 

Well as it happens, you’re actually better off not knowing.

Y’see, after an hour or so, I realised; “this is shit.” Disappointing considering the premise of the film seemed so interesting; a formula is uncovered from the past which predicts every major disaster, down to the location and the number of people who will die from/in/because of it. Morbid, yes. But the trailer posed an interesting concept, so I thought I’d stick around to watch.

But once again, Film4 lied to me. That lying bitch.

Instead of the interesting and original film we were promised, we were presented with a warmed up ‘end of the world’ formula (how many times has this been done, seriously?) dressed up in the tarty outfit of a cross-generational narrative.  Sounds fancy, right? It ain’t. And neither was the film.

It was peppered with unexplained questions about whisperings, some sort of itchy-scratchy type business going on with a couple of kids (no, not that lovable Simpson’s cartoon (unfortunately!)), and a handful of creepy East 17 wannabe lookalikes. Through all these set-ups, we had potential avenues of explanation dangled in front of us, but like the donkey sat looking at the carrot, we never got any tasty answers.

And then we have the ending. Sigh.

Have you ever seen a disaster movie? Yeah? Well this is the same as that one. And all the others. Ever. It was exactly the same. I won't go into detail (partly because i hate spoilers, and partly because i didn't care to remember alot of it), but it was the same bitter-sweet ending (bitter because it’s a disaster movie, sweet because it’s mainstream Hollywood) that we all hope will get ditched some time soon in the favour of something a bit braver. A bit more original.

Don’t get me wrong – Nic’s gotta pay the bills, as do the cast and crew, so I get their motive, I just wish I got their madness. And while I’m wishing my life away, I wish they’d have taken the time to explain some of what we were seeing too.

But then again, maybe we were just better off not Knowing…