Knowing

Directed by: Alex Proyas

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury

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.

Source: imdb.com

Review:

This is going to be a tough review, mainly because even with all the flaws I found in this movie, I still throughly enjoyed it. First of all, Nicolas Cage is great, not his best performance by any means (and it will be hard for him to touch his Lord of War performance) but it was good. Anyways, this movie centers around these numbers, and how they predict all these major catastrophic events that have or are going to happen. As Cage trys to figure out what the numbers all mean, events happen just as they numbers say they will. These catastrophic events are played out very well, and are in fact the best parts of the movie. They're shocking to say the least, even though the special effects aren't the greatest, they still show terrible events happening right before your eyes and its pretty intense stuff. One scene in particular reminded oh too well of 9/11 in fact.

As the movie goes on, I became increasingly more excited to find out how this story would eventually play out, then, the movie almost does a complete 180. I won't spoil it for you but its a pretty big twist, and in all honesty its not the twist you're hoping for, at least it wasn't the one I was looking for. Even though I am a big sci-fi buff, I sort of questioned the direction the movie goes. I understand the meaning and all that, it just wasn't what I was expecting at all or what I was looking for.

I should also point out that the child actors in the film, are terrible. Like, I know most child actors aren't good ever, but usually they have smaller roles and don't bring down the movie with their awful performances. However, the son in this movie has a really big part, and by the end you're rolling your eyes at the unconvincing performance he gives. Also, I'm a big Rose Bryne fan, I loved her in Troy, 28 Weeks Later, the TV show Damages, and especially in Sunshine. She is basically one of my favorite actresses. With that being said, I felt her performance in this was sub par. She was good up until she went into panic mode, and then she just sort of turned into an annoying b*tch.

So all in all, Knowing is good and enjoyable. However, I left the theater feeling a little unsatisfied. Whether I'd recommend this movie to you or not really all depends on you. I saw the movie with two others, and we all enjoyed it, but all of us felt about the same regarding the ending. If you like the premise and idea of the movie, or you're just a Nic Cage fan in general, I say see it. If not, save your money for something else.

My Rating: 2 1/2 Stars