Knowing (2009)

Director: Alex Proyas

Cast: Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, Chandler Canterbury as Caleb Koestler, Rose Byrne as Diana Wayland, Lara Robinson as Abby Wayland / Lucinda Embry, D.G. Maloney as The Stranger, Nadia Townsend as Grace Koestler, Alan Hopgood as Reverend Koestler, Adrienne Pickering as Allison Koestler, Joshua Long as Younger Caleb, Danielle Carter as Miss Taylor (1959), Alethea McGrath as Miss Taylor (2009), David Lennie as Principal Clark (1959), Tamara Donnellan as Lucinda's Mother, Travis Waite as Lucinda's Father, Ben Mendelsohn as Phil Beckman

What has happened to Alex Proyas? Back in the '90s, he directed dark,
edgy pieces of sci-fi/horror, like The Crow and Dark City, that didn't
necessarily pander to studio or audience expectations. Nowadays, he's
gone in exactly the opposite direction, first with the fun but uneven
Will Smith vehicle I, Robot (which doesn't have much in common with
Asimov, despite the title) and now with the Nicolas Cage-starring
Knowing. Entirely bad it ain't, but boy, does it struggle from time to
time.

Cage plays a physics professor at MIT, named John Koestler, who teaches
students about the notion of determinism, i.e. the theory that
everything is part of a precise, already established plan. The irony is
that he doesn't believe any of that stuff since his wife died in a
tragic accident, leaving him alone with his young son Caleb (Chandler
Canterbury). One day, something special occurs at Caleb's school: a
time capsule, which was buried fifty years earlier, is unearthed so
that the new generation can see what kids thought the future would look
like back then. Instead of a drawing, Caleb ends up with a page
containing a bizarre sequence of numbers. John takes a look at the
sequence, and quickly (?) realizes that the numbers represent the dates
and body count of every major disaster of the last five decades,
including 9/11, Katrina and - big surprise - the death of the missus.
Three of the predictions, however, have yet to come true, so John must
find a way to prevent them from happening. Additionally, he has to deal
with a group of weird-looking people who are interested in Caleb.

If it all sounds a bit familiar, that's because it is: while the story
develops on its own terms, the premise alone, coupled with the creepy
atmosphere, could come from an episode of The X-Files. In case the
similarities weren't clear enough, the writers have even replicated the
Mulder-Scully dynamic in the shape of John and his reluctant partner
Diana (Rose Byrne) and added the inevitable religious subtext, which is
hinted at from the very beginning (John's dad is a preacher). Also, the
Strangers look kind of... In short, it's the sense of déjà vu that
brings down most of Knowing: the third act is very easy to guess, the
father/son relationship is sketchy, yada yada yada.

And yet Proyas manages to get some things admirably right: the tension
is actually pretty consistent, with a few professionally delivered
jump-scares along the way, and the visual effects are state-of-the-art,
most notably in the impressive central set-piece which - a true stroke
of genius, this one - is depicted in a single, continuous shot.
Additionally, Cage's performance is one of his most convincing in quite
some time. Okay, so it's not that difficult given his recent body of
work includes the likes of The Wicker Man, Ghost Rider and Next, but
his portrayal of a man who questions his beliefs (there we go again)
adds some emotional weight to the picture. And that's without
mentioning the refreshingly merciless conclusion...

Knowing is nothing new, meaning that the few unexpected elements it
contains are rapidly sidelined by textbook scripting. Still, even on an
off-day Proyas manages to pull off a collection of oddly compelling
images (Cage's hair not included). Not quite enough, but we already
sort of knew that, right?