Awake had an unbelievably terrifying premise

Imagine going in for surgery, and the anesthesia doesn't work the way it's supposed to.  So you're actually awake during the procedure, hearing everything going on around you.  And, worse, feeling everything they're doing to you.  But you're completely paralyzed so no one realizes the problem.  Imagine the terror you'd feel, not to mention the unbearable pain!  This is what Hayden Christensen's character Clay endures, when he's awake during his heart transplant. 

And the scenes showing his torment were absolutely brilliant.  I felt his terror, and declared that I was simply never ever going to have surgery! 

But then a funny thing happened to this movie.  It shifted gears completely.  And I'm not saying that the movie's new direction wasn't entertaining.  It was.  It just was no longer about the original premise.  In fact, the original premise sort of goes away and gets replaced by a completely different phenomenon - that of having a quite realistic out-of-body experience.

Because Clay's surgeons have no idea he's really awake, they speak freely. And what they're talking about is a conspiracy beyond Clay's wildest imagination.  As Clay starts to figure out what the surgeons are really planning, his out-of-body self tries to 1) gain more information by re-visiting past events and 2) stop the conspirators in their tracks.  Thus his out-of-body self roams the hospital, trying to speak to his mother, and his wife Sam (Jessica Alba).  Of course, we hear what he's saying, but no one else does.  However, since he can hear and see everything, he is able to glean the rest of the information he needs to really understand the situation.  He just appears to be helpless to stop it.

What follows are some very surprising turns, as the conspiracy story gets ever more complex.  But the "awake" premise is pretty much abandoned.  While Clay's out-of-body self is conducting his investigation, he doesn't seem to feel the terror or the pain from the surgery anymore.  In fact, the whole "awake" thing is never really mentioned again - we're not even told why it happened.  Too bad - I thought it was an amazing (if absolutely terrifying) premise and would have liked it to be further developed.

That said, the conspiracy part of the movie was also quite good.  I was completely absorbed in the story, waiting to see what would happen next, and how it would all unfold.  And the twists that followed one after the other really kept me engaged.

I thought Christensen did a pretty good job in this role.  Even if he did look a bit too young to be the high-powered business mogul he portrayed.  I was quite impressed with Jessica Alba as his wife, Sam.  She's given opportunity in this movie to stretch her range just a bit, and I think she did it quite admirably.

Lena Olin plays Clay's mother, and I thought something was just a bit off with that pairing.  At times their relationship seems a bit strange yet that strangeness doesn't fully develop.  Almost as if an intended subplot had been dropped. 

Terrence Howard plays Clay's friend and surgeon.  I thought he did a great job with this role, as he is required to portray many different emotions, and did so flawlessly.

Overall, I really did enjoy this movie.  But I'm left feeling a bit perplexed by its quick-change premise.  I think if you're going call your film "Awake" you should concentrate a bit more on that part of the story, rather than dropping it half-way through. 

Another movie about an out-of-body experience: The Invisible


Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age