AWAKE

"Jack I can still feel everything"

Billionaire businessman Clay Beresford Jr. (Christensen) may have everything but he still has to wait for a compatible donor heart to save his young life. On the advice of his doctor and best friend Jack Harper (Howard) he is trying to make the most of his life, Clay pours himself into his work, creating thousands of jobs for his native New York and falling into the arms of the love of his life Sam (Alba). When a compatible heart is found and Clay is prepped for his life saving surgery, he is given his general anaesthetic but as the operation starts he realises that he is still awake, only paralysed but he is able to hear and feel everything. The agonising pain is the least of his worries however because he overhears that the surgeons are playing to kill him.

Over twenty-one million people have a general anaesthetic every year but thirty thousand of them are conscious, though paralysed throughout the procedure but is this fact interesting enough to you awake through this movie?

Written and directed by Joby Harold, 'Awake' uses his interesting medical fact as a plot point for the second half of the movie but unfortunately it isn't interesting enough. Unbeknownst to Clay Beresford Jr., his live saving heart transplant could be more fatal than he ever could have imaged as the surgeon's who supposed to be working to save his life are in fact planning his demise and how they can get their hands on his millions. While this might sound an intriguing storyline but the execution is dyer.

Firstly you have to believe that Hayden Christensen could be a brilliant industrialist who owns most of New York and has created thousands of jobs for the city but the problem is that he cannot act. After been bombarded with negative criticism for the two 'Star Wars' prequels he played Anakin Skywalker and for his outing in Doug Liman's 'Jumper', Christensen again struggles to convince anyone that he can become a character you can believe in or care about. Secondly you have to believe that doctors would do anything for money in a time when malpractice suites are rife and their careers can be finished because of this. Surely it is the hospital insurance that covers its staff against any claim of malpractice and not the doctors themselves, as none of them would be able to work. Finally you have to be able to believe that even if a patient is feeling everything while under general anaesthetic that they can have an outer body experience that allows them to revisit parts of his life to help him figure out why his doctors want him dead and how they have got this far.

The performances don't really help the situation either, which is surprising as there are some talented actors and actresses on show here. While we already know that Hayden Christensen can't act but you would expect more from the usually excellent Terrence Howard and Lena Olin. Jessica Alba continues to chose a variety of different roles to show her talents and his is quite change for her, as the story reveals but it still doesn't take anything from what is still an appalling script.

'Awake' is a disaster of a movie. It takes what is a promising plot statistic and tries to run with it but in the end it just fails into farce. While Jessica Alba is always worth watching, the movie proves again that Hayden Christensen isn't much more than a pretty face and that even good actors like Terrence Howard and Lena Olin can't save a terrible script. You will have a problem staying awake during this one.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is good.

BONUS FEATURES

Audio Commentary
Writer/director Joby Harold provides an informative and chatty single person commentary for 'Awake'. It is clear that he really believes in the film and doesn't really see any of the faults, including the performance of Hayden Christensen but this doesn't take anything away from what is a decent commentary.

The Making of Awake (13.13 mins)
Writer/director Joby Harold, producer Joana Vicente, technical advisor Dr. Stephen Bailey and stars Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen talk about bringing 'Awake' to the silver screen. The group explain where the story came from, the characters and how the phenomenon of people been conscious through an operation is real.

Deleted Scenes
Entitled 'Clay and Jack', 'Dracula', 'The check book', 'Grim Reaper', 'First Date', 'Last Train Home' and 'Christmas Eve', these deleted or extended scenes suffer from the lack of a commentary or introduction to explain why these scenes were removed.

Storyboard to film comparison (8.44 mins)
Watch the scenes entitled 'Coming Home', 'Before surgery', 'A broken heart' and 'the memory' with the accompanying storyboard on the screen.

Blooper Reel (4.22 mins)
Watch Jessica Alba, Hayden Christensen and the rest of the cast make a hash of their lines and have fun on set.

OVERALL

The DVD treatment for 'Awake' is one that fans should enjoy. The featurette are standard fair and the storyboard comparisons are a good addition. The extras are far better than the film.

DVD

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2008