"Awake" Bland in Title as in Dramatic Notions

Genres: Drama and Thriller
Running Time: 1 hr. 24 min.
Release Date: November 30th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: R for language, an intense disturbing situation, and brief drug use.
Distributors: MGM Distribution Company, The Weinstein Company

Directed by: Joby Harold


JJ Rating: B-

Clay (Hayden Christensen) loves a girl (Sam - Jessica Alba). Girl loves Clay. Mother doesn't like girl. Clay likes girl anyway. Clay has a heart problem. Clay needs heart transplant. Clay gets a heart because of a doctor friend (Dr. Jack - Terrence Howard). When Clay goes under he feels the entire surgery and hears things. Suddenly life doesn't seem as wonderful as he had thought. Awake.

I like Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba. In this movie they do a good job with their respective parts as does Terrence Howard, who happens to be a raising favorite for me. Their acting and characters were not a problem because I really liked who they portrayed. I especially like Alba and Howard's characters for reasons I cannot fully disclose because that would spoil some of the fun of the movie.

Awake's story is bland. It loses the dramatic flair it tries to obtain with the montages it thrusts out there while Clay is going under anesthesia. They try to pull on heart strings with the montage of past dates and smiles and giggles and hugs and touches, but it doesn't work it only bores. I wanted it to be a good movie because the idea is so fresh and interesting, but it falls short like its running time. It does try a last ditch effort to snag a few hearts with the end with Christensen and Lena Olin (who plays Lilith Beresford the mother) and it almost works. The first hour is a bit slow for my taste. Which is really sad considering the movie is only 24 minutes more. Those minutes are slightly better.