Knowing (2009)

7/10

Another great outing by director Alex Proyas ("Dark City"). This is not a straight up horror movie, but it does have its scary moments and some horrific action sequences. Nicolas Cage plays John, a widowed father with a son, Caleb.

50 years ago the kiddies at the local elementary school wrote and drew things to put in a time capsule. One odd girl just wrote a long list of numbers. Fast forward 50 years to the opening of the capsule. Caleb is the lucky one to get the gibberish message. Ah, but no, John uses his uber-astrophysicist skills to decode the message. Turns out that the numbers correspond to dates of major accidents or disasters.

For anyone who has seen the trailer to the movie, John decodes the next two accidents (there is a bit describing how he knows where they will happen, but I'll leave that for you to watch). Of course he can't do anything about these accidents, though he tries.

Strewn about are mysterious figures that Caleb sees at first, then John. Also, there is a woman involved that really doesn't add much to the story. The figures are rather creepy. The film is long on dialogue and plot. It does feel long at times; at other times it has the viewer hanging in suspense. A fair bit of the film is John trying to understand the message, which leads him to the original odd girls and some other folks who may know something or just be flat out crazy.

The ending was powerful for both myself and my wife. Many reviews found it trite and forced. All I know is that it left us both tearing up, so you can take that as you may. The ending most likely will make or break the movie for most viewers.

There are the aforementioned action scenes, which are done well. The pace is generally slow, but it fits the atmosphere of the movie. Besides the two action sequences the movie feels like it is edging up to something big. The acting is OK, the dialogue is not bad. Nice creepy cinematography.

I would suggest a rental first, for this may not click with many horror fans. The replay value is also not too high, and it does star Nicolas Cage. Forget watching this at a party.