Alex Proyas directs Nicholas Cage as John Koestler, a MIT professor and astrophysicist whose son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury [unfortunate name isn't it]) ends up in possession of a letter written by an odd little girl named Lucinda (Lara Robinson) way back in 1959. That letter, not more than a series of random numbers, Koestler discovers, actually predicts the dates and number of casualties of every major disaster for the past 50 years. Naturally, the letter still has a couple dates pending so Koestler begins his quest to understand these final entries, including the letter's last which gives a date for destruction and the letters "EE" meaning "everyone else". The film up to this point is actually quite engaging, the lack of character development aside. But enter the end of the world predictions (this time via a solar fare) and the appearance of "whisper people" - aliens who arrive to whisk off the Koestler's kids to start over again and the whole film goes off the rails. Knowing proves the old adage that having a great story premise and pulling it off on the screen is often harder than you think. Yet, for the rank silliness that arrives about two-thirds of the way into the film, Knowing makes a great go of it at the beginning including two utterly amazing scenes: a plane crash that is stunning and a subway crash that demonstrates all that's good about CGI. Is Knowing a good film? Not particularly, but it's certainly worth a rent.
My rating 5 out of 10.
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