Review: Knowing (2009)

Director: Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City)

Cast: Nicholas Cage (National Treasure, Lord of War), Rose Byrne (Troy, Sunshine), Chandler Canterbury, Lara Robinson, Nadia Townsend (Fireflies), D.G. Maloney, Ben Mendelsohn (Australia, The New World)

The Deal: In 1959, a young girl named Lucinda (Robinson) deposited a series of numbers into her class's time capsule. 50 years later, John's (Cage) son Caleb (Canterbury) receives these numbers, which John realizes predicted every major disaster to date, including the death toll and location. Realizing three events have yet to happen, he searches for clues, which lead him to Diana (Byrne), Lucinda's daughter. They both realize that their children have some connection with a group of strange people who seem to know what is coming. With the planet days away from destruction, John must do whatever he can to save his son and new friends.

Thoughts: I've finally come to terms with what a Nic Cage film entails. Usually they are far from masterpieces, but when taken lightly, they often prove to be quite entertaining. You can pick apart the Nation Treasure films all day, or you can ignore the faults and have fun. I'm happy to say that Knowing follows this path. I thought is was incredibly interesting and suspenseful for the majority of the film. Though the ending was fairly predictable and cheesy, it was suitable enough and contained some pretty cool visuals.

Disregard the one performance that earned Cage an Oscar, and you'll notice he's not particularly great. Despite this, he proves to be quite good in the film. There is a fair amount of depth to his character, and I actually did find traces of believable emotions. Byrne's role was far more generic. Film's like these always have the pretty girl for the "hero" to save, and she doesn't do much to stand out from the crowd, but she's capable here. I enjoyed Canterbury's performance. Child actors you don't hear about everyday tend to have very forgettable performances, but I though he was above average and displayed emotions quite well.

I find it interesting that aside from Roger Ebert, critic's were quite harsh on the film. Ebert stands by his beliefs that it was a fairly good film, and I tend to agree. Some events played out a little quickly and too conveniently, but the overall effect was quite good. There were nice visuals, solid performances, and some frighteningly eerie scenes. I can honestly say it's worth theater prices.

My one beef with the film is that the smooth black rocks didn't really have a greater purpose. The film kept hinting towards that direction, but the result was rather lackluster.

Verdict: A surprisingly entertaining and worthwhile film. The story was interesting and suspenseful, and the performances were quite decent. ☆☆☆1/2