My rating: Wait for HBO

Last night I watched Knowing, staring Nicholas Cage. The movie takes place in Lexington, Massachusetts, and begins in 1959 with the burial of a time capsule to commemorate the opening of a new elementary school. Fast forward 50 years to 2009, when the time capsule is opened, and Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), son of MIT astronomer John Koestler (Cage), receives an odd letter from the capsule: Two pages covered entirely with numbers.

Caleb’s father that night, in a drunken stupor, begins to see patterns in the list of numbers, and becomes convinced that the paper can predict the date of future tragedies, and the number of fatalities that will occur. Meanwhile, Caleb begins to hear whispering, and see things–both visions, as well as human-like figures in the dark.

This ending really disappointed me. The first half of the movie had a great balance of suspense, action, and mystery. When everything was revealed, I was left feeling like I’d been given a literary cop-out.

This movie is clearly a piece of Scientology propaganda; not that this alone is a reason to not enjoy the film. It probably says more about me–that I don’t share a Scientologist world view–than it does about the merits of the movie’s story line itself.

So unless you enjoy movies from a scientology perspective, or simply enjoy doomsday movies, I suggest waiting until you can watch this movie for free (that day may already be here!). Wait for it to come out on HBO or another premium cable station. Or don’t even watch it at all–there are many better movies out there to choose from.