Awake film review

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AWAKE

Awake is a medical thriller that landed dead on arrival on the US box office chart, registering barely a blip before swiftly disappearing after its release last November. Reviews were unkind and it looked like this latest release from the Weinstein company would be quickly forgotten.

All the more surprising then to find that the finished product is an absorbing thriller, with plenty of twists and turns that at least this reviewer didn't see coming. What's more, it's written and directed by an English newcomer by the name of Joby Harold.

It would be unfair to give away too many details of the plot, but some opening title cards make for uncomfortable reading. Apparently some 21 million patients receive a general anaesthetic each year, but 30,000 of them never actually fall asleep. Thus, during their operations, they are able to hear and feel everything that is happening to them.

This is the fate that befalls Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen), a young man who on the surface has it all: a beautiful girlfriend (Jessica Alba), a loving mother (Lena Olin), and a fortune in the bank thanks to the inheritance of his late father's business empire. But there is a cloud in the shape of his dodgy heart, which requires a transplant as soon as a suitable donor becomes available.

Certainly if you are squeamish about seeing operations depicted on the screen this may not be the film for you, as Christensen spends a lot of time with his chest cut open on the operating table. But fans of ingenious thrillers should find plenty to enjoy, and the whole thing is somewhat reminiscent of the works of Ira Levin, the American master of the compact thriller.

Paul Hurley