I liked Knowing until the last 10 minutes. The setup is intriguing: a 10 year old girl writes a series of hundreds of numbers to be placed in time capsule as part of a school celebration in 1959. Now, in 2009, the time capsule is opened and Caleb, son of a MIT astrophysicist, takes the sheet of paper with the numbers home. His father (played by Nicolas Cage) sees the numbers and obsessively tries to figure out what they mean. And he does figure it out: each series of the numbers is the date and location of a disaster. There are 50 years of disasters described on that sheet of numbers, disasters that hadn’t happened yet when the little girl wrote them. Then, there are the Whisperers. No, not the soul group. These Whisperers are creepy, silent people who only Caleb can hear in his mind. All of this convoluted plot leads to a disappointing, mawkish ending. Knowing got my hopes up, but couldn’t deliver the goods at the end. GRADE: B-
I just can’t watch a movie with Nicholas Cage in it. I know he’s done some decent work but he takes me right out of the story with his hysterical (and not in a funny way) performances. A good blogging topic for Monday maybe.
I know Bill Crider shares your distaste for Nicolas Cage. You’re welcome to the topic for your blog. I think any leading man could have played the role Nicolas Cage played in Knowing. He didn’t bring anything special to the role.
I actually liked him in a few movies early on-Red Rock West, Raising Arizona and Leaving Las Vegas. Even Vampire’s Kiss a little. I especially dislike him in action movies.
Nicolas Cage has been in some very bad movies. THE WICKER MAN comes to mind. And GHOST RIDER. Cage makes some strange decisions about the films he wants to be a part of.
By chance I read a review of this movie today, by Roger Ebert. He didn’t give away the meaning of the numbers because he thought it would be bad form.
Ebert liked Knowing a lot more than I did. The idiotic conclusion renders the whole plot line about the numbers irrelevant.
I just can’t watch a movie with Nicholas Cage in it.
Amen, Patti. I dislike him intensely – especially his hairpiece – but have (for my sins) seen many of his awful films. The one that turned me off permanently was PEGGY SUE GETS MARRIED. Why she’d have a second chance and marry him again is inexplicable!
He did appear in some entertaining (if trashy) movies, however, like THE ROCK and CON AIR, two of Bill’s favorites.
Nicolas Cage is a very polarizing actor: people either like him or hate him.