“Awake” is a different kind of thriller – one in which the victim can see what’s about to happen to him but can do nothing about it.
The victim is Clay (Hayden Christensen), a very wealthy heir to the family business who has a bad heart and needs a transplant. But when he goes in for the operation, the anesthetic doesn’t knock him out. Rather, he develops “anesthetic awareness” – he remains fully conscious during surgery, but is paralyzed.
For the picture to be a thriller, something nefarious has to be going on during the surgery. In order to not give away the entire movie – and this one is so cleverly tied together that revealing just one element will unravel the whole thing – about the only thing that can be further said is that a handful of other characters play critical roles in the story.First there’s Sam, Clay’s new wife. Played by Jessica Alba, who actually does well in a role that demands she be more than a pretty face and body, Sam is about as conflicted as movie characters come. The first of her conflicts – and one which gives little away – she is the personal assistant to Clay’s overbearing mother (Lena Olin), who is none too thrilled to find out that her upper crust Manhattan boy is attracted to a girl from Brooklyn.
Mom is also determined to force Clay to change doctors for his operation. She, of course, is friends with the leading heart transplant surgeon in the world (Arliss Howard). But Clay is loyal to Jack (Terrence Howard), a rather shaky practitioner who works at a public hospital who saved his life during a previous episode with his ticker.
Because Clay is paralyzed, much of “Awake” takes place in flashbacks and in his mind, which races around, sometimes believably, other times not so much so. There’s also plenty of drama that takes place in the hospital’s operating and waiting rooms.
“Awake” was written and directed by Joby Harold, who is making the jump to feature films from videos. He fares far better than most first timers, keeping things taut and fast moving, even when the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo gets to be a bit much.
He also gets surprisingly good performances from Christensen, who stank up “Star Wars: Episodes II and III,” and from the aforementioned Alba. Olin is always solid, and Terrence Howard, who is among the best actors working today, again makes an impression in a small role.
But the success or failure of “Awake” depends on whether you’re able to suspend disbelief and buy the story as Clay’s mind races in an effort at self-preservation. I was able to buy into the movie enough to enjoy it while it was going on. But Harold’s house of cards starts to fall down on closer examination.
Perhaps the biggest oddity for “Awake” is that it has an entire holiday weekend to itself, with no other major releases hitting screens anywhere in the country. That alone will guarantee decent box office for a movie that, on a more crowded Friday, might have rapidly disappeared.
“Awake” is rated R for language, an intense, disturbing situation and brief drug use).
Source: Northwestcountyjournal.
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