Knowing
Lissa Coffey
Grade: C-
| Knowing is promoted as a sci-fi thriller, but it’s really more of a horror movie. Scary – creepy scary. The story starts out in 1958 when an elementary school buries a time capsule. The kids all draw pictures of what they think the future will look like. One little girl is compelled to write a series of numbers in a kind of trance-like state. Fast forward to the present day when the time capsule is unearthed. One dad, an astrophysicist, gets this sheet of paper and starts analyzing it. He finds that the numbers correspond to dates and locations of catastrophes where many people died. Since the little girl who wrote the numbers is dead, he tracks down her daughter, and the two of them try to solve the mystery of what this all means. Their two young children are now very much involved, so the stakes are high.
Nicolas Cage is the dad, and he is badly miscast. He’s too old, too sullen, too removed emotionally from the situation. I usually like Nic Cage, but this performance just didn’t fit. Knowing is filled with doom and gloom, armageddon, Christian overtones and undertones throughout. Heavy handed and dark. |