Review of Awake (2007) by Jeff B — 04 Sep 2010

An interesting card that is preposterously played, Awake will make moviegoers wish that they had been administered an anesthetic of Drano and Flintstones Chewables upon entering the theater. It is best to get the plot summary out of the way now, so that this reviewer can elaborate more on this insanely botched procedure:

In the PG-13-rated wannabe thriller Awake, Christensen plays a surgical patient who begins to hear ruminations about his murder while under ?anesthetical awareness,? conscious but unable to move.

The somewhat Hitchcockian premise set up in the trailer (that of a man ?thinking? he overhears a plot against him) DID hold promise. The ridiculous script, however, had other plans. Nevermind the stilted dialogue, unlikely plot points, unnecessary voiceover, and medical inaccuracies?-Awake boasts an out-of-body experience from whom the audience can only assume is the main character?only this flight of fancy ultimately adds nothing to the plot and this character gets sidelined in the third act anyway! Hooray! But the problems started much earlier: The story plods along clumsily, confusing anybody not already lost in the ether. The film would have worked much better had the action begun with the actual surgery, the drama unfolding in the waiting room and the past in flashbacks. But instead, Awake has designs on being a psychological thriller...and a supernatural thriller...and a crime thriller. Yes, it?s three, three, three thrillers-in-one?and all of them are piss-poor! The supposed thrills deliver all of the aplomb of a coffee enema and, ultimately, the experience gives viewers the same flushed results.

Bottom line: Cinema malpractice.