It's like Signs, but with a better plot and not so hot acting..

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2009)

Alright, first off I'm a bit biased I love Proyas' work.. THE CROW / DARK CITY are films I have come to love and enjoy. That being said, The Knowing is not Proyas' best work by a long shot.
I'm sadly a bit of a Nick Cage fan, but unfortunately I found this particular performance lacking some his endearing characteristic acting. Heck, in general most of the acting was a bit bland. Though I tip my hat to the 'whisper people'.
Okay so the 'too many loose-ends' talk surrounding this movie seems a bit silly. People ask how this means that or that means this. For example why Lucinda was contacted and why Nick Cage got the code. The point is it doesn't really matter, Proyas' film has taken the road of determinism and so 'everything happens for a reason'. Also there is a lot of people dissatisfied about how Proyas' handled the determinism/coincidence debate by focusing on determinism, but is there really a story to tell from the coincidence side? I think we learn early on during Cage's lecture from his blank expression about the lack of meaning behind the coincidence argument that there really isn't anything more to say about it. The coincidence argument means life is random, how can you make a plot from that? Now, what I liked about the film was how these almost alien-like 'whisper people' were given an almost god-like angelic status.. Are they angels? Are the God? Are they aliens? Who knows? Their very vessel which carried the children to safety could be a space craft or a divine mechanism.. 'Deus Ex Machina'.. Also the biblical and the TREE at the end (The Tree of Life?) were a further blurring of the lines. Also there are beautiful allusions to other films throughout the film that are very nice. My favorite is the "You won't let me play S.T.A.L.K.E.R." line, "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." a decent pc game based on Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's STALKER novel of similar 'end of days' ambiguity to THE KNOWING.
Finally, why should you see this film. Because the soundtrack is nice, the acting is decent, the 'cheesy effects' are reminiscent of colored pages out of a fairy tale text or a 70's sci-fi (Close Encounters With The Third Kind), and the story is a beautiful homage to science, sci-fi, fantasy, and religion. Only downside is it makes you wait so long to find out what's going on, and who the 'whisper people' are.