What exactly is "suspension of disbelief?" In general, it is the concept of a viewer ignoring implausibility and accepting what they view as fact, even though they know that it is fiction. But is it an ability that each film-goer has, with some being more skilled than others? Perhaps one's ability to suspend disbelief might even vary depending on mood. Or is it something that is earned by a film by presenting its unbelievable elements in a believable way? No matter how you define it, suspension of disbelief is a fragile state. The consciousness that you are seated in a movie theater watching a work of fiction is constantly threatening to interrupt your experience. These are some of the deeper questions that Knowing had me thinking about. Unfortunately for the film, these were not the questions that the viewer was meant to be considering.
     Knowing is an ambitious sci-fi thriller from Alex Proyas, the director of Dark City and I, Robot. Nicolas Cage stars as an MIT professor whose son brings home a 50-year-old piece of paper from a time capsule. This paper is covered with numbers which, if you've seen the trailers, you know are the dates of major disasters. But what happens when the numbers run out? At this point in the film, it feels much like another Cage franchise, National Treasure. The previews played into this fact, marketing Knowing as more thriller than sci-fi. This becomes a problem when the movie takes a hard turn into far stranger territory.
     The action scenes in the film are effective. There is plenty of tension, and the scares are among the most intense one could expect from a PG-13 film. There is one action sequence which recalls Children of Men, with a very long sustained take of Cage wandering through a disaster scene. This scene feels very immediate and real, which further contrasts with some of the events which occur later on. The special effects are of top quality overall, and are not at fault for any problems with suspension of disbelief.
     Perhaps the problem with Knowing is that its main sci-fi premise involves events being scripted. But of course they are scripted, because we are watching a movie. Nothing takes me out of the world of a movie quite like repeated reminders that I am watching a movie. The first half of the film doesn't quite work for this reason, and the audience was more apt to laugh at a tense moment than actually be frightened. In Knowing's second half, it really goes off the deep-end. Unfortunately, it was already treading water before that, so it just feels like more of the same preposterousness. The sad thing is that the ideas presented in the second half of the film are quite interesting and could have made for a great movie. However, most viewers will not find themselves getting truly caught up in the film by this point anymore.
     If you can make it through this film without a single snicker or second thought about its believability, then you possess and extraordinary ability to suspend disbelief. I envy you, as you were probably able to engage with this film in ways that I was not. The positive or negative slant of my review depends entirely on my ability or inability to simply sit back and accept the plot of the film, no matter how ridiculous. Knowing shares thematic similarities with M. Night Shyamalan's Signs in terms of their focus on issues of religion and faith, but that is not the only way in which the films are similar. They also both evoke strong reactions from the audience about whether or not they can buy into what the films are selling. With Signs I could, with Knowing I could not. I don't know if that is because of any differences in the films, or if my ability to suspend disbelief is at fault. Either way, I can only say that it is probably worth seeing the film and testing your own ability to believe it, because you might have more faith than I did.

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Knowing