Knowing

Starring Nicholas Cage in his usual form - an intense, slightly spaced-out MIT prof,  slightly lost single father, his wife having tragically died a few years earlier, rearing a son with an unusual "hearing" problem. Professor John Koestler drinks too much and is estranged from his dad, a retired pastor. John's sister regularly stops by to look in on her bro, hoping to bring about a reconciliation, but no go. Faith has failed the professor, so he turns away from dad.

For the first three quarters of the film, I was into it - sort of a Da Vinci Code, can-ya'-figure-this-out adventure centered around the opening of an elementary school time-capsule.

50 years earlier, children were asked to draw a picture of what the future might look like. One little girl, Lucinda (Lara Robinson), maniacally writes line after line of numbers, both sides ... the teacher snatches it away before she's finished, and then tucks it away in an envelope with all the others for burial in the time-capsule.

Later in the day, the little girl is missing, only to be found by the teacher, Mrs. Taylor, in the basement beneath the gym, hiding in a closet, scratching numbers on the closet door with bloodied fingers.

Now, 50 years later, when the capsule is opened and the envelopes given out to the students, John Koestler's (Cage) son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) receives Lucinda's letter.

Professor Koestler cursorily examines it, and then, something catches his attention. In an all-night frenzy of analysis, he determines half the numbers as dates for disasters, with the number of people killed - most of which have occurred. He shows it to an MIT colleague who's intrigued, but finally dismisses John's theory - "we see what we want to see."

But the next day, a day predicted for 81 to die, John is on the road to pick up his son for school, he looks at his GPS for alternative routes, and suddenly realizes that the remaining numbers on Lucinda's note are coordinates. That very moment, an airliner crashes beside the road, with 81 deaths, at the very spot indicated.

Okay, what's going on?

The plot unfolds well. John locates Lucinda's daughter (Diana Wayland played by Rose Byrne) and granddaughter Abby, only to learn that Lucinda died a few years earlier, alone in a trailer in the woods. John also locates Mrs. Taylor, now very old, but she confirms this to be Lucinda's letter and tells John about the closet in the basement.

Things now become a bit melodramatic - apparently, no one sleeps - searches of the trailer in the woods, and a lot of things, happen at night. I thought, "Why not wait until daylight?" Oh well.

Then, strange men begin appearing. Caleb can "hear" them whispering. So can Lucinda's granddaughter - she calls them the "whisperers."

A cataclysmic sun flare erupts - as predicted - the world is warned to take cover, and there ensues all the typical mob panic scenes, stores being looted, etc.. Thrown together by "fate," John and his son head for the caves with Abby and her mother.

Well, to make a long story short, the last quarter of the film falls apart, as far as I'm concerned - a good story in search of an ending - ominous music throughout segues into soaring chords of heavenly music ... "ET" meets God meets Ezekiel's wheels meets "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" meets a new universe and the tree of life, or something like that. In the end, and I mean end, John, his parents and his sister, have one final hug, but he knows his son and Abby are safe, having been snatched away in ... well, you'll have to see it for yourself.

If you like Nicolas Cage (and I do), you'll like it and will forgive the corny, rather unimaginative ending.

The acting is generally good, but the children have to spend a lot of time appearing mystical.

Worth seeing in the theater? Sure, why not?