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 young Caleb Koestler. But it is Caleb's father, professor John Koestler, 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 John 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 John and his son. When John's attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place. With the reluctant help of Diana Wayland and Abby Wayland, the daughter and granddaughter of the now-deceased author of the prophecies, John's increasingly desperate efforts take him on a heart-pounding race against time until he finds himself facing the ultimate disaster -- and the ultimate sacrifice.

Sometimes you have to sit back and wonder what the producers or the writers were thinking when they make a film. Because Knowing had so much potential and the first half of the film is done so well that when the film train wrecks about halfway through and becomes a complete and absolute mess you are left dumbfounded on how they went wrong so quickly. And when I say they went wrong I am not exaggerating and cannot emphasize how bad and how horrible the film becomes. The film goes from a good movie that has drawn you in and is keeping you guessing to one of the most horrible, clichéd, excruciating stupid endings ever in film history. The ending is so bad it leaves a horrible taste in your mouth and you cannot believe how they managed to mess up such a good first half of a film in such a vile manner.

The first half of the film is a wonderful suspense thriller that keeps you guessing as you try and figure out like Nicolas Cage’s character what is going to happen next. Strange occurrences happen and somehow a piece of paper buried in the earth for fifty years is accurately predicting the future and disasters. It’s a wonderful piece of suspense and mystery and trying to put a puzzle together. But then the film takes a hard left turn first with the appearance of strangers that seem to be out to harass Cage’s son then it takes an even harder left turn as it reveals what I can only guess they thought would be an epic ending and where the numbers are leading too. I could have taken any resolving of the mystery except for the one they gave because the one they gave is so ludicrous and so ridiculous and so stupid that you want to throw your popcorn at the screen and boo and hiss.

I think too many screenwriters are just lazy with their craft and they take the easiest way out rather than putting together a fantastic ending to go with a very good first half of a film. What would have likely worked best is if Nicholas Cage isn’t actually able to figure out what the numbers mean but is able to gain insight on his troubled life. It would have been a very hard ending to pull off but it would have fit perfectly with the first half of the movie as sometimes you don’t need an absolute answer bur rather just the ability to solve the inner conflict of your characters. But instead the film takes the easy way out and goes with the ridiculous and absurd and stupid to end their film.

I think I am almost bound to mention Nicolas Cage’s hair every time he does a film and that is something if you’re an actor you shouldn’t want people focusing on rather than your actual acting. Cage is a very good actor that seems to make very poor choices in the films and roles he takes similar in how he makes very poor choices in his hairstyles. This is another one of those films that Cage should have passed on or actually read the entire screenplay before taking the role. It is also another film that someone somewhere should have stepped in and said really you can’t give us a better ending than this. The ending ruined everything the first half had set up and made the movie unbearable.

Grade: D