KNOWING ***½

Produced and directed by Alex Proyas, this sci-fi/thriller stars: Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, and Chandler Canterbury. Rated PG-13 for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief strong language. Running time is two hours and ten minutes.

In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead. Fifty years later, a new generation of students examines the capsule’s contents and the girl's cryptic message ends up in the hands of a young boy (Canterbury). But it is his father (Cage), a professor , who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As he further unravels the document's chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events—the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve him and his son. When his attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself along with the daughter (Byrne) of the original author to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.

Almost always, after leaving a movie, I forget about it within a few minutes. That's not the case with this film. Featuring a number of excellent special effects as well as a well paced plot that holds your attention, it's main attraction for me was the varied plot elements I keep thinking about and extrapolating into different backstories long after I'd left the theatre. Many are going to write this off as just another sci-fi thriller, others are going to be upset by a plot that conflicts with fundamentalist religious beliefs. While I can't imagine this winning any major awards, it does tell a story that provides plenty of food for thought. A large screen and good sound definitely enhance the effects of this film.