Film Review

09 January 2009 13:10 BST

Awake

Directed by Joby Harold, out April 4th, starring Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin, Cert 15, running time 90mins.

In a nutshell...

Wandering off the point, medical thriller

What's it all about?

Clayton Beresford (Hayden Christensen) a young wealthy businessman who shares out his defective heart between two women, one being his clingy mother Lilith (Lena Olin) and the other being the dream girlfriend Samantha Lockwood (Jessica Alba). Jack Harper (Terence Howard) is Clay's best friend and cardiologist, and after having already declared that Clay is in desperate need for a new heart, insists that Clay start living life to the fullest.

After 'waking up and smelling the coffee' Clay decides to confront his demons, including admitting to his mother, his undying love for PA Samantha (Alba). He then decides to marry Samantha the same evening. Conveniently straight after the couples are married without delay a new heart has been found for Christensen, so without even making the wedding night official he goes straight under the knife.

While actually having a change of heart (literally) Clay discovers that he is suffering from a common phenomena known as 'anaesthetic awareness' - metaphorically speaking somebody's home but the lights are switched off. Being left paralysed but able to observe, Clay starts noticing a dodgy operation taking place on himself (What to do?). Clay then has a semi out-of-body experience which then allows him to travel back in time and piece together the parts of the missing puzzle. DUN DUN DUN!

Who's in it?

Hayden Christensen (Clay) has come along way since being cast as Anakin Skywalker in the Blockbuster, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. He is now a well known name in the industry and has even had a number of nominations under his belt. Christensen's role as Clay was anything but worthy of another nomination. His performance as Clayton Beresford was extremely one-dimensional and very wooden. His whole persona as poor little rich boy with a faulty heart did not even result in the audience feeling any emotion.

Jessica Alba is renown for gorgeous looks as well as being an actress. The Fantastic Four star miserably failed in making her performance believable in this role as Samantha Lockwood the girlfriend of Clayton. Her cheesy lines and annoying remarks about love (pass the sick bucket) leave you shaking your head at this terrible piece of acting. Makes you wonder - if it wasn't for her looks where would she be now?

Terrence Howard has proved he is worthy of his crown, as the new 'Indie Film King' by Entertainment Weekly. The actor who previously starred in many reputable films some of which include the Oscar-winner Crash, also landed a leading role playing a pimp in Hustle and Flow. Howard plays Jack Harper the GP and best friend of Clayton who has more then enough malpractice law suits against him. The Oscar-nominated star definetely made great use of gestures and mannerisms to express and communicate things about his character.

Awake is Joby Harold's feature directorial debut. The British Writer and Director graduated from UCLA film school in 1998. His previous work includes a comic book adaptation, OUTLAW and is currently in development of his new film Chess for Deutsch/Open City Films. Awake even though extremely far-fetched is not a lazy film and wasn't a bad attempt for Harold's debut. Harold also has the bonus of working with Oscar-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter, who brings a great visual intellect to the film.

As an example...

Clay Beresford: "Am I supposed to still hear you?2
Dr Putnam: [after cutting up Clay’s chest] "Ooh, that's going to hurt in the morning. Sorry, Clay!"
Clay Beresford: [thinking] "Yeah, you better be sorry!"

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Far, far away.

What the others say

"As a gimmicky tale of betrayal and medical malfeasance in the tradition of Coma, this atmospheric thriller boasts a solid cast and enough twists to painlessly kill 85 minutes." - Hollywood.com

"There's really no reason the entire film should unfold over the course of a single day - you're already tired of the improbabilities long before Clayton even enters the hospital - and Harold works around the fact that our hero is flat on his back and immobile for much of the film by using a terrible voiceover, out-of-body experiences and silly encounters on the astral plane to push the plot forward. What a waste." - Ken Fox, TV Guide

So is it any good?

Vaguely based on director Joby Harold's own experience when undergoing surgery for kidney stones, Awake is very much an unbelievable attempt to fool the audience with two many irreverent plots.

The storyline is extremely far-fetched which leaves you not very satisfied with what it has to offer. The film could have delved more into the realistic aspects of the 'anaesthetic awareness' phenomenon and then maybe they would have had a bigger hit on their hands. Instead the most appealing premise of the film ends up with hardly any relevance to the story line. This then somewhat creates a mediocre plot mixed with some terrible lead acting by Christensen and Alba. Added with some extremely dicey medical knowledge from the doctors who somehow fail to notice a tear coming from Clayton's eye.

Awake uses too many mechanisms to try fool the audience with twists that are so easy to unravel you don't even consider the obvious. Then once you think it has to be all over now, another twist is dragged up unnecessarily.

The film included a couple of graphic scenes on the operating table mainly for the blood and gore fans but once removing your hands from your eyes you wonder if this was just an expensive way to kill time or its sole purpose was to keep you distracted from the pointless storyline. It then all goes terribly wrong and appears to imitate a bad version of Ghost, then all potential swiftly removes itself from the film.

Even though there is a lot of snubbing available for this film, sometimes the inner critic needs to hold back and just try and enjoy a film that doesn't necessarily need much mind-boggling activity. If you question this movie to much you will end up disappointed but if you just watch it and let it flow it won't be too bad on the eyes. Especially with a great looking cast.

4.5/10

Natalie Gurvitz

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