KNOWING

Science fiction

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Lara Robinson: Lucinda Embry, a student in a Boston primary school
Chandler Canterbury: 10-year-old Caleb Koestler
Nicolas Cage: his father John, a professor of astrophysics at MIT
Nadia Townsend: John’s sister Grace
Rose Byrne: Lucinda’s daughter Diana
Lara Robinson: Diana’s 10-year-old daughter Abby

REVIEW
It starts off with a decent premise, suitably mysterious and worthy of being solved 50 years later. Trouble is, as one member of the audience remarked, “John does it all by himself in a matter of minutes and denies the rest of us any opportunity to figure it out for ourselves…what a gyp!”

But that’s not the only problem with the film: it’s too long by at least half an hour with a totally unnecessary trip to an old cabin and a prolonged finale that “goes on forever”. In fact as someone else observed “the ending needs to be rewritten to come to a more satisfying conclusion”. Nuff said.

In all fairness though, the CGI effects are quite impressive and there are several creepy moments, scary enough that the kid sitting beside me jumped out of his seat 3 or 4 inches on two occasions.

CLASSIFICATION
for disaster sequences, disturbing images and brief language.