Knowing
2009 · Directed by Alex Proyas
Original language: English
- science fiction
- thriller
The story
A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.
What it’s like
Cold, desaturated autumn light over suburban Massachusetts, with the film's most striking images built from long, locked-off compositions of empty roads, lonely houses and a bleak, grey-green landscape that feels gradually wrong. Director Alex Proyas favours heavy, rumbling sound design, a brooding orchestral score that swells into tense silence, and a sudden, shocking catastrophe rendered with huge scale and rushing, disorienting camera moves. The vibe is anxious, apocalyptic melancholy: a grieving, sleep-starved household under a slow-building sense of dread that builds toward a spectacular, relentless climax. The pacing is deliberate at first, then accelerates into a run of set-piece disasters. Its intensity is high: frequent sudden disaster violence and a few stark deaths, plus some frightening, eerie imagery and a sustained sense of peril, though the gore is restrained rather than graphic. The emotional arc follows a widowed father slowly pulling himself back toward his son. It suits people who want a rainy-night, end-of-the-world thriller with a sombre, emotional undertow, not a light or gentle watch.
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