In his nightmare thriller, director Joby Harold takes audiences on an abstract journey through the consciousness of a paralyzed heart transplant patient.
By the third time Hayden Christensen runs screaming down the same stretch of orange hallway at New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center for the rolling cameras, his bright blue hospital scrubs are darkened with sweat and he looks ready to be committed.
In his nightmare thriller Awake, first-time writer-director Joby Harold takes audiences on an abstract journey through the consciousness of Clay (Christensen), a heart transplant patient who is paralyzed yet able to sense pain while under the knife. “It’s called anesthetic awareness,” says Harold, leaning over a monitor. “Here, he’s experiencing being cut, and he’s running to different places inside his mind, trying to find a place to deal with the pain.”
Satisfied with the take, Harold calls for the next scene, which offers Christensen the respite of lying on a stretcher. Jessica Alba, who plays Clay’s wife, leans over to whisper words of comfort before he’s wheeled away to the operating table. “He’s looking for a happy place, and the place he goes is back to where we fell in love,” says Alba. Looks like the operation won’t be the first time the poor guy lost his heart.