Knowing

Rating PG13 Genre sci-fi Starring Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne Directed by Alex Proyas Publisher Summit Entertainment

This film is quite different from the usual sci-fi thrillers of late. While so many films are geared toward survival in times of disaster, Knowing takes a slightly different route.

Nicholas Cage gives an outstanding and believable performance as a single, widowed father, John Koestler, who would do anything to take care of his young son Caleb, played by Chandler Canterbury.

The film begins with a fifty year time capsule being opened at the local elementary school. When the contents are divided between the students, Caleb ends up with a sheet of paper covered in seemingly random numbers. Thinking the paper to be worthless, John and Caleb toss it aside, only to discover that the numbers do mean something. John, a professor at MIT, begins to analyze the pattern within the strange list of numbers, and he devises a theory about the fate of humanity. 

John and Caleb cross paths with descendants of the little girl who originally wrote the list of numbers fifty years earlier, and the adventure begins to spiral out of control. John’s theory begins to take shape as he and his new friend Diana (Rose Byrne) and her daughter Abigail begin a race for survival that doesn’t quite last long enough.

Although Knowing  has some crazy twists and takes some unexpected turns that get the blood pumping, its conclusion may not appeal to everyone. At best, the feeling that it leaves is one of disappointment, and the sense that, in spite of the film’s tagline “Knowing is Everything,” knowing what was going to happen really didn’t make much of a difference.