Knowing

Now usually I get sucked into Nicolas Cage movies with no expectation that I will be entertained but for some reason I usually am. There is just something about all his ticks and mannerisms that don't make him a good actor but do make him an interesting person to watch. The movie starts in the late 1950s when an elementary school buries a time capsule to commemorate the opening of their new school. Inside that capsule is a list of numbers created by a strange little girl who had the idea for the time capsule in the first place. When the capsule is opened fifty years later the list of numbers comes into the possession of Cage who plays the improbable role of an MIT professor and single father with a bunny and Caleb, his genius 12 year old son (just like my father had). Of course Cage is troubled over the loss of his wife and like all these types of movies that gives him the freedom to meet a girl much smarter and prettier than she ever was. I do like the way the movie argues determinism vs randomness as I often have in my own head. ("Shit happens for a reason vs Shit just happens"). From his sister we learn what side Cage favors as he rejects religion and his pastor Father probably due to the anger he feels towards God at the lose of his wife in a fire. So the day comes fifty years later and the time capsule is retrieved and opened to the ominous music of the soundtrack and the envelopes placed within are passed out to the students of today. Of course Cage's son get the weird girl's envelop containing the list of numbers. Now since both are ubersmart this list has to mean something and only the two of them can figure it out. Seems that the numbers correspond perfectly to disasters that have happened over the past fifty years and the number of people who died in each disaster. (This presupposes that only one disaster happened on any given day). Yeh, I admit, my butthole puckered at bit. Now, of course, there are dates/disasters STILL to come and that sends our boys off on the adventure to prevent all this from happening. There are creepy people pursuing the list and I suspect that Cage will end up running from something that explodes directly behind him. Some of the effects like the plane that crashes right in front of him are pretty spectacular. 'Hang dog' and 'beaten down' is the kind of role Cage does best and the more this movie went on the more I liked him in it. Is he crazy or is this list of prophetic numbers something beyond his ability to influence? What would you do knowing what he knows? Stay away or run full speed towards preventing what you know is going to happen? Well we wouldn't have a movie if he just let it go. Add to all this some creepy night visitors that give your son apocalyptic nightmares and your actions are pretty much set. Cool. I am along for the ride. Clocking in at 2 hours and one minute the movie actually FEELS like a full movie as opposed to all the movies I have watched lately that lasted less than 80 minutes. I gotta give it to the filmmakers that I didn't expect the ending but in truth, it was the only type of ending possible considering what came before and the corner they had painted themselves into story wise. So all in all a satisfying ending to different kind of mystery. I liked it.