KNOWING

Despite a nifty numbers puzzle and a thrilling first half, Knowing slowly starts to derail like a subway slipping off its tracks.

Sigh. I really really wanted to like this movie. Knowing actually had me for the first half, it really did. It's thrilling, scary, and gripping... for the first hour or so. Then like a car losing a tire, it starts careening and fishtailing in baffling ways. But I guess that isn't really too much of a surprise as it stars Mr. Careening Career himself, Nicolas Cage.

Nic Cage stars as a single-dad-slash-astrophysicist. His adorable son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) is wise beyond his years, but is really still just a little kid missing his mom who somewhat recently died in a freak accident. Nic (we'll just call him that for familiarity's sake, since he always plays the same sensitive yet tough character) has basically given up any faith that there is such a thing as fate in the universe. We are all just victims of completely random circumstances. Until he comes across The Letter.

The Letter, 50 years old, is pulled out of a time capsule at Caleb's school, and—it must be asked—is it fate that this one letter from a freaky school kid of the past lands in Caleb's, then his father's hands? It would take an M.I.T. professor, like Nic Cage of course, to solve the riddle of this page full of rows and rows of child-scrawled numbers. What's the pattern? Why, it is a list of horrible tragedies from the last 50 years where many people lost their lives... the exact date, followed by the number of dead. And three combinations of numbers are left... Run!

But that is just the set up. Knowing, with some truly thrilling and chilling sequences, propels through the first hour or as Nic slowly pieces together out the riddle of the numbers. The disaster scenes are truly creepy. The first, a horrific... let me repeat HORRIFIC plane crash sequence had me shrieking, "GAH!" with my hands fluttering in the air to cover my eyes. And it is followed by a suspenseful subway sequence where the puzzle pieces are finally falling into place. But once the puzzle is figured out, the film starts to derail like that very same subway.

Single dad Nic and son then hook up with a single mom (Rose Byrne) and her daughter (nice match!) to rush to avert the final disaster. They frantically drive around a lot. The parents jump in and out of cars, often leaving the kids inside with unlocked doors. This is alarming, because strange, ominous characters are thrown into the mix: speechless shadowy guys in trench coats that look like long-lost brothers of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Who are these guys? Harbingers of doom? Angels of death? The children call them The Whisperers, and don't seem to be too afraid of these ever-present loiterers. The film seems to be leading us in one direction, but then it doesn't follow through. It wraps up with a climax that had the audience snickering, and going, "What the...?"

And it is really too bad. I thought Nic may have finally made a decent thriller. But he only made half of one. Back to the drawing board.