Knowing, directed by Alex Proyas, stars Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, a depressed, hard-drinking professor of astrophysics at MIT. Early on, we see Koestler giving a lecture to his class, asking them if they feel that events are random or predetermined. The students’ opinions are varied, but at the end of the lecture Koestler lets us know that he believes that whatever occurs happens by chance -- his wife was killed in a freak accident, and he still can’t reconcile it.

Koestler comes to possess a piece of paper written 50 years before by a young girl, Lucinda Embry (Lara Robinson). Though at first it seems like nothing but a series of random numbers, Koestler discerns patterns in the numbers that reveal that Lucinda has accurately predicted the exact dates of some major catastrophes around the world, including how many people die in each. What’s more, some of the catastrophes have yet to take place.

Knowing is a pleasant surprise. When Koestler figures out what the numbers mean, I thought I knew what sort of film was about to unfold: the professor would somehow transform himself into something like a superhero, and save the world from a destruction it didn’t know was coming -- just the sort of big-budget Hollywood movie Cage has often starred in. But the plot of Knowing isn’t so predictable, and the quartet of screenwriters have done a great job of leading you one way, then pulling the carpet out from under you when you least expect it, to leave you wondering what’s around the next corner and how it will all turn out. Usually I can predict a movie’s plot, but I couldn’t do that with Knowing; I sat there thoroughly intrigued all the way through.

However, two things bothered me. One has to do with a key scene near the end of the film that, depending on your beliefs regarding life after death, may or may not seem plausible. Though overall I enjoyed how Knowing was wrapped up, at this point I had a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief. Then there are the special effects -- while most are impressive, particularly in the most harrowing scenes, some look a little fake, almost cartoonish.

But those are minor criticisms. Knowing is much better than most of what Hollywood releases these days, and far better than the kind of stuff Nicolas Cage has been doing recently (Bangkok Dangerous, anyone?). It’s a suspenseful film with an unconventional story and a pleasing number of twists that will keep you guessing -- though never really knowing -- until the very end.

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