Monday, April 13, 2009

Knowing **

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson, D.G. Maloney, Nadia Townsend
Director: Alex Proyas
Running Length: 2:02
MPAA Classification: PG-13

At the opening of a time capsule, Caleb Koestler (Canterbury) receives a sheet of paper covered with numbers. When he shows it to his father, John (Cage), he becomes obsessed with the 50 year old sheet of paper. He comes to discover that the numbers represent all of the major disasters that have occurred over the past 50 years including the date, death total, latitude, and longitude. His investigation also leads him to Diana (Byrne), the daughter of the little girl who wrote down all those numbers so long ago, and her daughter Abby (Robinson). Together they try to figure what will happen when the numbers run out. Meanwhile, the kids are being watched by mysterious strangers who might be the key to solving the mystery.

“Knowing” is an odd movie that starts out odd and gets progressively odder. Normally that would not bother me, but for some reason, “Knowing” just got too ridiculous for me to walk out of it with a positive feeling. I suppose I understand what the movie was trying to accomplish, and there was some interesting moments, but overall it just left me feeling disappointed. The special effects are solid, and there are some action scenes that are pulled off really well. Nicolas Cage gets some points for trying something different, something he does often, but that is not enough to save this film. I can’t recommend it.