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Hayden Christensen, Terrence Howard and Jessica Alba star in Awake, a tale of a man who experiences anesthetic awareness during a heart transplant surgery.

Awake provides a good story, strong cinematic twist

By: Ben Johnson

Posted: 12/4/07

Thousands of people go under the knife every day. Whether it's a simple wisdom tooth removal or something as complex and dangerous as a heart transplant, millions of people have had some sort of surgical procedure performed on them at one time or another. With the aid of general anesthesia, the pain associated with these procedures is completely bypassed - in most cases. For an unlucky few, a condition known as anesthetic awareness takes place, a condition in which the paralysis agent of the anesthesia has worked, but the comatose agent has not. This terrifying concept is the subject of first-time director Joby Harold's Awake.

Clayton Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is on top of the world. He and his mother (Lena Olin) run a multi-million dollar corporation, and he is set to marry his sweetheart, Sam (Jessica Alba). But Clayton has a very severe heart condition that will preclude his living much longer. In order to prolong his life for as long as possible, Clayton must receive a heart transplant. The surgery is to be performed by his close friend Jack (Terrence Howard). But as Clayton is slipping into the grips of anesthesia, he realizes something terrifying: he's not fully anesthetized. He is paralyzed, but he can still hear and feel everything - and what he hears and feels in the operating room is disturbing.

While most research on the subject reveals that the film is grossly inaccurate in its depiction of anesthetic awareness and the number of people it affects, the film is nonetheless a well-made psycho-thriller. The first half hour of the movie is somewhat mired by seemingly no direction and more than a few clichés - both cinematically and in regard to dialogue - but after that the story really picks up. The film doesn't seem too preoccupied with anything more than what audiences have already seen in the film's trailers. While some mild ambiguity at first obscures narrative orientation, the film is not particularly hard to follow.

The film blindsides the audience with one of the best movie twists seen in the past decade or so. Once the initial 180 takes place, it's a narrative free-for-all as the film takes on an insidious quality. And some delightful little cinematic devices weave their way into the story and make the film visually satisfying. The end result is a movie that could have benefited from protagonists chosen based on their acting ability and not sex appeal, but is nonetheless an engaging psycho-thriller.

While both Christensen and Alba need to take a few more acting classes, Awake still manages to emerge as a surprising achievement in directing, cinematograph and story - quite an accomplishment for Joby Harold's first film. Just when you think you know what's going on, something else seems to shake things up and keeps you guessing as to just how this will all end. Some viewers might be deterred by the film's profanity and graphic depiction of surgical procedures, but the labyrinthine path the film takes will keep you on the edge of your seat. The film's best secrets will inevitably make it onto the street soon, so if you'd like to be surprised, see it sooner rather than later. But for what it's worth, Awake is hopefully the beginning of a successful career for Harold.