Review of Awake (2007) by Calum B — 13 Jul 2012

It seems that the comments have been one extreme or the other - people have either loved it or hated it. I'm right in the middle. I'm glad I saw it, I don't want my money back. But I won't add it to my DVD collection, either, though I admit, it's mostly the genre.

The major problem for me in this movie was the script. I kind of felt like it was a waste for Lena Olin and Terrance Howard. Believe it or not, Hayden underplaying it worked. I just wish he'd get more consistent. He was brilliant in "Shattered Glass" and "Life As a House," but flat in the Star Wars movies. This performance was in between. While his voice can be somewhat monotone, his facial expressions continue to knock me out.

Who surprised me was the much maligned Jessica Alba. I've never seen her in anything, so I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised. Though she could have upped the ante a little bit at the end, she did infinitely better than I thought. And no one does the human weasel like Fisher Stevens! There were some macabrely funny moments and some nice twists. The problem is the plot also had one twist too many. I thought the final twist with Clay's father was totally unnecessary.

The movie might not be for the squeamish. I had to look away more than a few times and half way through the movie I realized I had put my hand over my heart in several scenes. I have to say in that sense, it worked.

I know this movie has caught some slack for medical inaccuracies. I'm usually a stickler for accuracy, but really, are people going to see this movie to learn how to be a surgeon or to get the crap scared out of them? I say if it's the later, it works!