Awake

Year of release : 2007

Run time : 1h19m

Genre : Thriller

Cast : Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Lena Olin, Terrence Howard, Georgina Chapman, Christopher MacDonald

The conspiracy thriller was written and directed by Joby Harold in his directorial debut.

Clay is a young billionaire, who finds it hard to walk into his father's shoes, as he thinks he's not good enough. This is brought about mostly due to the fact his mother is controlling, and he keeps his relationship with Sam, who is his mother's personal assistant, a secret. They have been dating for a year, and Sam feels "sick" that he treats her like she doesn't exist when his mother is around.

Clay, who is in his 20's I believe, as Hayden Christensen was 24 when the movie was shot (the movie was filmed in late 2005), is best friends with a surgeon who saved his life when he had his first heart attack. He trusts him with his life, and wants him to do the heart transplant on him, when they find a heart. His mother doesn't think he should gamble his life on his best friend just so he won't hurt his feelings, and brings him the best surgeon in the country. Clay at this point just seems to do anything he can to spite his mother.

After Sam leaves his place crying, Clay finally tells his mother, and asks Sam to marry him that very night, which she does, that very night, finding an open church. That very night is also the night they find a heart for him (how convenient! ), as he has the very rare blood type, O Negative.

Clay gets ready for surgery, and while under, on the operating table, although paralyzed, Clay realizes he's awake, a real condition known as Anesthetic Awareness, and not only he can hear what the people around him are talking about, but he can feel everything!

He is trying to block the pain out, so he thinks of Sam, walking through the memories.

Having a new anesthesiologist, the surgeon best friend, is afraid to go through what he and his team have planned. Clay over hears this and realizes they plan to k1ll him by injecting the heart with Adryamicin, so they could all cash in on the insurance money.

Sam, who is with Clay's mother, Lilith, seems to know a lot about a hospital she never set foot in (like how the vending machine works, and who's a doctor there and who's not), and even a doctor working there is asking how does he know her, but she shows him her wedding ring to get rid of him. She tells Lilith she's gonna check on how the surgery goes, and entering the operating room, Clay discovers she's in on it, as a matter of fact, she's the one pushing the surgeon to inject the heart!

I personally enjoyed the movie, especially the second half. The characters have their own personalities, as Clay seems to do everything to spite his mother, lives in his father's shadow, thinking his mother compares him to him finding him unworthy,which is not true. His mother, although controlling (I honestly don't know what she had against him dating or dating Sam,as it's not addressed), loves him, SPOILER and sacrifices herself to save him. Sam is pure evil, as she acts so loving with him, and then we see a different side of her. His doctor friend, Jack, who has 4 malpractice lawsuits pending (you'd think Clay, as a billionaire would research the people around him, but no; and even when his mother tells him about it, he doesn't care, like a spoiled kid, trying to prove his mother wrong), 2 ex wives and 2 mortgages,SPOILER is planning to get rich by k1lling his friend! SPOILER As the movie unravels, we realize everything, starting with Sam meeting and dating Clay was planned by these people! END OF SPOILERS

I liked the visual effects with the place in the dream world Clay was in, gradually losing light, as he was dying. I also liked Clay looking through the memories and falling from the happy ones he wanted to be in, into the sad ones.

What I didn't understand was why did it start and end with a narration by the surgeon who wasn't even the lead, misleading the audience, for the movie is from Clay's point of view, SPOILER and he doesn't die.

The acting was fine to me, although the critics complained about the leads. Jessica Alba was nominated for Worst Actress at the Razzie Awards, and was also nominated for Worst Screen Combo Razzie with Hayden Christensen. Ironically, I was thinking that Jessica was my favorite when it came to the acting in this movie. The only one who seemed a bit off was Hayden Christensen.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie received negative reviews from critics, having a 23% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 33 score out of 100, on Metacritic.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a C+.

Awake grossed 32.7 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 8.6 million.

You can watch the movie for free, if you follow this link :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSeSqWkkIxs

Rating : Worth a watch !