Awake Review

"Awake" reviews

Movie

Awake

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2008-03-28 17:40:15

Provider

Review

Given the plethora of potentially lethal diseases that be contacted in hospital these days, only the brave and/or desperate agree to go under the surgeon's knife. Awake, a medical conspiracy thriller, provides another reason to avoid hospital, based as it is on the disturbing premise that a minuscule percentage of patients awaken during their surgery.

One such patient is New Yorker Clayton Berersford Jr (Hayden Christensen), an extremely wealthy individual with a suspect heart who's engaged to marry the beautiful Samantha (Jessica Alba) and who has been on the donor list for a good 12 months. While his domineering mother (Lena Olin), who knows nothing of his engagement, would prefer him to go on the black market, he bides his time and when a slot comes up opts for a young doctor (Terrence Howard) who has treated him before rather than the seasoned pro championed by his mum.

What follows is, it must be said, preposterous, involving as it does Clayton's dawning realisation that he is not fully under anaesthetic and can hear everything that is going on. And what is going on (besides some gory close-ups of heart surgery), Clayton learns, as he roams throughout the hospital, listening in on various conversations, is a plot that is truly sinister…

So finely drawn is Awake, though, that the film's implausibility matters not a jot. Certainly, if nothing else, it's the finest thriller that Hollywood is likely to throw up this year in which the hero's heart spends much of the film in a jar.