Guest Author - Lorna London Sloukji
Directed by Alex Proyas, Knowing takes place in 1958, when a group of students at an elementary school is asked to draw pictures to be kept in a time capsule. One girl records a series of numbers on her sheet of paper.
Five decades later, another group of students studies the capsule's sheets, while a young man named Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury) takes the girl's sheets of mysterious numbers. Caleb's father, professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) discovers that the girl's cryptic message decodes the dates and disastrous events that have occurred over the past fifty years.
As the sheet of numbers is studied more and more, Ted determines that the document also suggests that destruction on a large scale involves him and his son. While authorities refuse to believe Ted, he soon realizes he must be in full control in order to prevent such global destruction from occurring.
Ted soon receives some help from Diana Wayland (Rose Byrne) and Abby Wayland, the daughter and granddaughter of the girl that once wrote these numbers. Tension and panic increase as the final date on the list of numbers approaches. Professor Koestler takes on a whirlwind of chaos and fright as he embarks to save millions of lives, with the possibility of making the ultimate sacrifice.
What critics have to say:
"Knowing, a moody and sometimes ideologically provocative film."
- Los Angeles Times
"Knowing closely follows the guidebook for mystical thrillers with paranormal themes. Cliches abound."
- USA Today
"Although made mostly of spare parts, Knowing is a not-bad supernatural-tinged sci-fier that has more on its mind than the run-of-the-mill effects-driven extravaganza."
- Variety
"Hollywood filmmakers have long grappled with the inherent conflict between belief systems and science, as Jodie Foster's scientist-atheist did in 1997's Contact. Those themes are certainly echoed again, and left equally unresolved, here. Whatever else Proyas has done in Knowing, he has created an ending that is sure to divide audiences into camps of love it or hate it, deeming its message either hopeful or hopelessly heavy-handed. For me, it doesn't quite work; still I'm glad he took the risk."
- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
Release date: Friday, March 20, 2009
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 122 minutues
Director: Alex Proyas
Producers: Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch, Todd Black
Screenplay: Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, Stiles White, Stuart Hazeldine
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, Adrienne Pickering, Nadia Townsend
