Is Knowing Worth It?

For the dedication of a newly built school, a time capsule is to be buried for future students to open 50 years from the date. The students drew their ideas of what the future would be like. The students drew spaceships, robots and rockets. One student, Lucinda Embry, scribbled something different. She wrote down a cryptic message of seemingly random numbers. No one could imagine what the message would mean for the future. The new thriller Knowing is about whether it is useful to know what the future has in store.

50 years later Professor John Koestler, played by Nicolas Cage, and his son Caleb are trying to create some normalcy for their lives after the death of Koestler’s wife. Caleb is a student were the time capsule is about to be exhumed. Once unearthed, the drawing are passed out to the new students. By chance (or not) Caleb, played by Chandler Canterbury,receives Lucinda’s message. Koestler, grappling with his personal beliefs on death and the afterlife since his wife’s passing, soon finds the mysterious note and begins solving the puzzle.

After disappointing films such as Wickerman and Ghostrider, Cage may scare you off from this film but Knowing is a genuine thriller. The film has a PG13 rating but some scenes are brutally gruesome, at one point you literally see people burn. I thought it would be okay to take my 4-year-old niece but I had to cover her eyes at points, even I cringed at some scenes but any movie that can keep her to sit still for two hours is definitely one worth watching. The special effects are excellent and the suspense keeps you glued even though the film was a lengthy 121 minutes.The plane and train crash was scarily realistic, you feel as if you’re in the scene. Cage performance is dull but that is to be expected. His performance was hallow. The plot’s twists and turns are exciting but the over the top Sci-Fi ending is disappointing. Some of the small details of the film go explained which was also disappointing. The film includes Rose Byrne and Nadia Townsend.

- Diane Sanchez

April 4, 2009. Uncategorized.