Pretty Heavy And At Times Creepy

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2009)

I suppose that any movie that deals ultimately with the end of the world has to be at times heavy. This one definitely qualifies on that count. It opens with a portrayal of children at a Massachussetts elementary school planting a time capsule in 1959 that was to be opened 50 years later. The children all draw pictures of what the future would be like, except for obviously troubled Lucinda, who scribbles out what seems to be a random set of numbers. Fast forward 50 years and the time capsule is opened. Young Caleb gets Lucinda's paper, and his father John - an MIT astrophysics professor who lectures his class about the competing theories of randomness vs. purpose - becomes fascinated with it and finally realizes that it's a list of dates when tragedies will happen, showing not only when they'll happen but where and how many will die.
From that point on there's a real creepiness to the movie as the next two of Lucinda's prophecies come true, and John finally realizes what the final one (which didn't identify a number of people killed, but simply recorded "EE") is. Through most of the movie there was a sort of quasi-religious, sort of new age/sort of Christian theme going on. There are a number of biblical references, and it turns out that John's father is a pastor, although John himself is filled with doubt, especially after the death of his wife before the movie started. The final prophecy (as it starts to unfold) creates suspense but also became a little bit silly, as the identities of the "whisperers" was revealed. Their identity wasn't really a surprise - there were perhaps 3 possibilities for who or what they were, and any of them could have worked as the basis for the movie. The closing scene returns to the quasi-religious theme as Caleb and Abby find themselves in a Garden of Eden type environment, heading toward a tree. Is the Genesis story now just going to begin again, with these two as Adam and Eve?
I liked Nicholas Cage as John. He did a good job with the part and this was clearly his movie. The feeling of silliness as the movie came to an end aside, this was a pretty suspenseful movie with a pretty good depiction of the apocalypse at the end. 8/10