Rated PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language.
Directed by Alex Proyas (I, Robot and The Crow)
Starring Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury
Knowing is an exciting, edge-of-your-seat, well made movie for 100 minutes; unfortunately the film is 121 minutes.
John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) is a professor at MIT and the single dad of Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) who attends the Elementary School that is celebrating the opening of a time capsule. While other students are given drawings from students of the past, Caleb is given a sheet of paper with nothing but a bunch of numbers that Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson) wrote 50 years ago. John is able to decipher that some of the numbers are dates and the number of people that were killed in the some of the worst disasters in the past 50 years. John sets out to stop the last 2 predictions and in the process finds Lucinda’s daughter, Diana (Rose Byrne) and granddaughter, Abby (Robinson in a dual role).
While I was watching and enjoying Knowing I actually thought to myself, I hope they don’t mess this up with some really lame ending. To say the ending is unsatisfying would be the understatement of the year and it made a very entertaining film… very disappointing.
Director Alex Proyas demonstrates that he can keep the tension mounting. But it felt like he didn’t know how or why to end the film because there is no explanation for what we see on screen. There were a few other glaring weaknesses, like the fact that I was able to guess the remaining numbers were clues to the locations of the disasters, but Mr. MIT couldn’t… come on!
The special effects (especially the plane crash) were fantastic and Nicholas Cage was great for most of it, but the ending left me thinking that I had just wasted two hours of my life. With a better ending it would have been “Theater Worthy,” but I have to go with “Only if Free.”
SHOULD KIDS SEE IT?
I agree with the PG-13 rating. The disaster scenes would be way too intense for younger kids, but it should be fine for teenagers.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
