Nicolas Cage tries to get back on track with an intense sci-fi thriller that starts strong, but finishes with a fragmented and drawn out ending that is less than spectacular.

This movie doesn’t take long to establish its spookiness and brooding sense of impending danger on the audience… living up to its PG-13 rating, but some images like the gruesome firsthand accounts of the tragedies may be too intense that may even leave some adults with nightmares.

(Spoiler-free !!)

Two themes run through the movie, the title of “Knowing”… giving some hints throughout of what is really going on.  There is also a continual theme of “looking” – looking through things and at things with camera angles and moves and circles that the audience or the characters look through to see something.

The disaster motif is more real and believable than that of recent sci-fi/disaster flop remake “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (2008)… that was heavy on the effects and weak on the actual plot.

Nicolas Cage does pretty well as the overworked, overstressed, overprotective single widowed father taking care of his son… and trying to teach his students in the Astrophysics department of MIT.

His beliefs and feelings that life is random is challenged after finding a series of numbers written 50 years ago that seem to be predicting major tragedies.

Cage handles the material well, but his supporting cast is not as strong and while the kids have important parts to play, they are not as convincing as they need to be.  Cage does have a few scenes where he acts like the way he is often caricatured in that intense over-dramatized Cage acting style.

Rose Byrne as the female lead is the closest thing to support Cage has in this cast… with a strong performance, but limited screen time.  Her character Diana has one of the most memorable lines in the movie as she comes to grips with the movie’s premise and her own mortality: “we all die in the end, I don’t want to know what my future holds”.

The movie also throws irony at you that as they face the disaster, the children are more grown up than their parents give them credit for and this point is driven home as the scared parents crawl in bed with their kids.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (mild spoiler)

The action and tension is good, the character development is good, and the premise is easily spelled out and easy to follow, but the last third of the movie loses the full head of steam that the movie built up in the middle.  Even though I was not surprised or bothered by the movie’s last few sequences, they were a little over-the-top and I felt less connnected than I felt for most of the movie.  So, in the end, what was headed towards an 8.0, in the end gets 7.0 out of 10.

 “Knowing ”

(2009)
(rated: PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language. )
(2 hrs, 10 min)

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, D.G. Maloney, Lara Robinson, Nadia Townsend, Alan Hopgood, Ben Mendelsohn

Director: Alex Proyas (”I, Robot” (2004), “Dark City” (1998), “The Crow” (1994))

Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi/Disaster/Drama/Mystery

The Plot: 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. 

So what did you think?  Please post a comment!

“Knowing” poster courtesy Summit Entertainment

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