I went to see Knowing last month. It was entertaining overall, but not exactly what I was expecting.
in 1959, a time capsule is buried to mark the opening of a new elementary school. Inside the capsule are drawings from the students. After the ceremony to bury the capsule, one of the students disappears.
Fifty years later, the capsule is going to be dug up. Caleb is a student at the elementary school. He is being raised by his father John, a professor at MIT who is still grieving the death of his wife. When the capsule is dug up, the students at the school each get an envelope that is to have one of the drawings in it. The one Caleb gets is just a paper full of numbers. John ends up noticing something by chance and develops a theory about what the numbers mean. That sets him off on a mission, which leads him to meeting Diana, a woman connected to what is going on, and her young daughter Abby.
Some time is taken to set up the time capsule situation in the past before focusing on things going on in the present with Caleb and John. Knowing works as a decent thriller for the most part, though it could have been better. There are some suspenseful moments that work well. The page full of numbers provides a little bit of mystery since it isn't clear what they mean at first. That ends up being figured out fairly early, though there are still things to figure out by the end of the movie. The mystery surrounding the numbers is eliminated for people who have seen the trailers though since they clearly give the explanation. I hate when that happens. Ultimately, there aren't that many surprises in the movie and certain things are rather predictable, which was a bit disappointing. I didn't like the ending that much, though I suppose it was logical with what was going on. Something just seemed wrong about it to me. There are unusual things going on throughout the movie which add some interesting moments. The unusual elements of the movie aren't going to appeal to a lot of people though. One or two subplots were introduced and then they didn't really go anywhere. None of the characters were overly interesting. The actors were fine, though nothing that special. Nicolas Cage is fine. His fans may find something to like about the movie.
I was entertained by Knowing, but it could have been better.
I did get a review posted on Epinions.
Knowing
