Movie Review: Awake

[xrr rating=3/5]

Awake
2007, 78mins, R
Director: Joby Harrold
Writer: Joby Harrold
Cast includes: Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin, Arliss Howard, Steven Hinkle, Christopher MacDonald

Released on one of the slowest moving weekends of the year last season in the US and receiving largely negative reviews aswell, few would enter a screening of Awake with particularly hefty expectations, and the fact bland master Hayden Christensen is billed first on the poster doesn’t help matters much either. To be fair Christensen isn’t great but aside from his by the numbers performance (it’s still the best of his career) the picture provides a fun thriller with a neat idea. It’s far from groundbreaking stuff and at a minute 78 minutes fairly forgettable but there are a few good performances here and in a nutshell the movie is reasonably enjoyable.
Awake’s protagonist is Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) a likeable 22 year old who has taken Wall street by storm. Clay is engaged to Sam (Jessica Alba) but his protective mother (Lena Olin) is unaware and to add to that little trouble he’s scheduled for major heart surgery any day now. His best buddy Jack (Terrence Howard) will be performing the operation again against his mothers wishes, she wants an experienced doctor (Arliss Howard) to pull off his transplant. As fate would have it all these aspects fold into one evening where he confesses to his mother concerning Sam and his relationship and his surgeon of choice. Later he finds himself under the knife prepared for his heart transplant, but when the final drop of Anesthesia falls Clay is immobile but not out. He suffers from “anesthetic awareness”, a situation in which the person is paralyzed but not asleep. He can hear and feel everything around him, and it’s because of this unlucky break that he is able to feel the pain of the scalpel and hear a plot to kill him along with stealing his incredible wealth.
The idea of this anesthetic awareness is a clever one, and manages to provide newbie director Joby Harrold with a decent debut. Harrold apparently got the idea after suffering from a case of Kidney Stones and he sets the scene well, the build-up is well staged and characters are given some sense of identity, and when the eyes shut but the brain keeps churning the film almost plays out like a thriller copy of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. One wonders whilst the acting isn’t of the caliber in that film, if Awake had preceded Michael Gondry’s film would it have been more celebrated? I guess we’ll never know.
I mentioned already that Hayden Christensen isn’t overly impressive here, when he’s mobile he’s as wooden and blank as we’ve come to expect. However under the knife in the sequences involving just his voice he does an ok narration, there is more emotion in these moments than in the rest of his entire C.V. I was on the other hand surprised by Jessica Alba’s mature performance, an actress guilty of getting places based on her looks she may be but here she convinces as lover Sam. I wouldn’t hesitate to call this Alba’s most convincing dramatic turn yet, she has been effective in a cute sort of way before but here she actually puts some meat on her character.
Terrence Howard is also rather good but that is not quite as shocking, after viewing Crash it would be hard to debate his quality as an actor. Lena Olin also provides a little extra oomph, even if her role is fairly generic and unmemorable.
As far as operating table gore goes, Awake stays in tasteful territory. The film is more keen to keep its audience guessing on its outcome than recoiling in disgust at blood and guts. Some of the so called “thriller twists” it takes are unexpected while others are more predictable but on the whole it remains good fun. The two leads also benefit from being two of the physically hottest actors in the Hollywood market today, Harrold exploits this only in a tame sequence at the beginning and in some of Christensens flashbacks concerning Alba. Fans of the actress hoping to see her lose her clothes will probably be a bit disappointed though, her naked back and a side boob is as far as she’s prepared to go.
The film looks slick enough up on the screen, the visuals aren’t as claustrophobic as I was expecting but there is where still some nice whites and greens utilized. Harrold is a director whom I will keep an eye on, he seems capable of making enjoyable popcorn thrillers and on the basis of most multiplex fare that is an underserviced market. I would say that Awake could provide an entertaining night at the cinema or indeed a solid DVD rental. I would be unsure about how many times most people will want to experience the film, but I’m sure the majority will be capable of having fun with it at least once.