Rio Grande Herald Movie Critic:
Gerald Salinas

Knowing is half the battle (yes I did steal that from G.I. Joe, and will probably use it again when I review that movie), but in this movie, knowing is not half the battle, it the whole battle. We know after Sunday comes Monday, we know we must eat to survive, we know football season is over in February, and starts again in September. These are things we know and I don't mind knowing. But once we uncover the unknown, and know more than we should, we should be afraid of knowing.

John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), who lives in dark times, behind the bottle, after his wife's unfortunate death, is a professor of astrophysics at MIT. John is now a single parent raising his only son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury). In a lecture John votes for a non-deterministic universe, following his words he believes "crap happens" (of course he doesn't say crap, but you know what I mean). Going to Caleb's school, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary, a time capsule is opened, which contains drawings from the 1959 children who drew what they felt 2009 would look like. Caleb received not a drawing but a sheet covered with rows of numbers on both sides of the paper. In the beginning of the movie we see a young girl by the name of Lucinda, a 1959 girl, who wrote the numbers.

John accidentally figures out the numbers on the sheet of paper are more than numbers but are dates, and follows the pattern. Going back to check the dates, he discovers all are major disasters, leaving three dates left, he becomes obsessed, and discovers more following the numbers. Not only are the numbers dates but coordinates, and of course this wouldn't be a movie if everyone believed him right off the bat, so until the first major disasters occurs, he comes off as sounding crazy. The disasters in this movie are so well made, I have decided not to describe them, for your benefit. I will be glad to talk about it after you have view the movie.

John grows more and more fearful of the numbers, finds the daughter of Lucinda, Diana (Rose Byrne) and her daughter Abby. Caleb and Abby share a special connection, they both hear whispers of the strangers who come from the woods. John takes Diana and her daughter everywhere he goes to protect them, but after knowing the last disaster is upon them, John becomes so obsessed pushing away Diana and the two kids, the whole worlds soon knows something bad is about to happen and the chaos begins.

I couldn't help but think of two movies after seeing this one: "Signs" and "The Happening", yes both were made from the same guy M. Night Shyamalan. The reason why I think of these two movies, first signs is that it had the same feeling after viewing it, as if someone knock the air out of you, and leaving you to talk about the movie after it was done. As far as the happening, the happening being one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It comes to mind because the happening wanted to be just like "Knowing", I compare the two because they are similar in what they wanted the message to be. But knowing shows The Happening everything it did wrong. Knowing is brilliant.

Nicolas Cage has proven time and time again he is a legend. His performance was spectacular, leading you to believe he feels alone, then obsessed, then crazy, to finally sad yet joyful.

This movie does come off as cheesy, as far as the dialogue is concerned but it still works, the story is so powerful even with the cheesy dialogue, it comes off as a masterpiece. The disasters in the movie are not just so awesomely made, and have a real life sense of feeling to them. Give a lot of credit to Alex Proyas (the director) for that, the scenes were unbelievable, and the story was very well visually told.

Knowing is brilliant, suspenseful, and giddy. It is one of the best movies of the year so far. It will leave you asking yourself "Is this planet preordain or does crap just happen?" Don't miss this fantastic movie, that will uncover the unknown, at the end you will ask yourself one final question "Is there a point of KNOWING?"