Interesting and great...until the end

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2009)

I read Ebert's review on this movie, and he gave it four stars. He doesn't hand out four stars easily and neither do I, so I sat down and watched this movie to see how good it really is. For starters, I'll say that "Knowing" is not the typical science fiction film with big explosions and overwhelming CGI like much of this summer's blockbusters. It is a movie that draws a fine question: Is there a purpose to life or do things just randomly happen?
The performances are rock solid. Nicholas Cage takes on many odd roles and once again he proves himself to be very versatile as the depressed John Koesteller who's left alone with his estranged son Caleb (Chandler Canterbary), who starts having visions of the end of the world. A fifty-year mystery is unraveled at Caleb's school as he finds a piece of paper that has coded writings, which predict events that have happened in the past and in the incoming future.
I won't go too much further with the film's plot, because (a) it would ruin the film for those of you who haven't seen it and (b) it would take a book to try and explain it; Knowing is one of those film's that you have to see from start to finish to get the gist of. For the whole two hours, I was interested and wanted more when it ended.
The cinematography is beautiful, the editing is crisp, and Marco Beltrami's score adds depth of mystery, suspense, and beauty to the film. I'll also note that the visual effects are not overdone or overused. They look and feel real. But when I mention that I wanted more when the film ended, I wanted more plot and answers.
Now I hate to give too much of the ending away, but I have to say that I was very disappointed in it. In the last twenty minutes of the film, it felt that the screenwriters did not know what to go for in a good resolution as well as a point to the film. Was it a look at fate? Selflessly acting to save lives when gifted with special knowledge? Or finding faith, better late than never?
And since aliens were involved, who enabled a young girl to predict the next fifty years of disasters, yet stood idly by while such prophecies was wasted in a time capsule, providing no one with such knowledge? No one except one man, far too late to change anything at all, who would merely "know" that the end was too soon? What good was there in his knowing?
If the screenwriters had chosen a route regarding God and faith, it might have made sense. If they had stuck with a sci-fi view, with aliens, it might approach something like "The Day The Earth Stood Still", and made some sense. If they had merely wanted a commentary on fate, destiny, or another one of those "the universe holds many mysteries" interpretation, they could have worked with that too. Instead the resolution is meaningless disaster.
My point being is that the screenwriters could have worked something more interesting for an ending and a message. The movie was a great film, until the very end. Things are left unanswered, up to the audience to decide what the message is. I guess this works on some viewers, but in my opinion, when a filmmaker makes a sci-fi film, all knots need to be tied and there should be a point, even if it is as ridiculous as a Paul Verhoven film. My rating: ***/****