Awake
Directed by Joby Harold (R)
A patient given faulty anesthesia discovers his surgical team’s plan to murder him.
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“Possibly the worst movie of 2007,” Awake is a medical thriller that will put you to sleep, said Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News. For his feature-film debut, writer-director Joby Harold explores the rare condition of anesthesia awareness, which leaves patients immobile but fully conscious during surgery. Hayden Christensen plays Clayton Beresford Jr., a wealthy New Yorker who suffers from a defective heart. When put under for a transplant, he remains alert and can therefore overhear his surgical team conspire to kill him and steal his fortune. Awake attempts to piece together its plot with an excessive use of voice-overs, risible doctorly behavior, and flashbacks introduced primarily because the film’s main character is immobile. Like Beresford, the audience “must silently endure agonizing pain” and remind itself that this insufferable film will soon end. Harold at least tries to throw in a few surprises near the film’s end, said Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel. But he makes one too many “Screenwriting 101 blunders,” and his inexperience becomes obvious. Terrence Howard, as Clay’s surgeon, is the lone bright spot, said Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times. But he can’t cure the film’s countless problems. Harold’s personal experience with a kidney stone was apparently the inspiration for Awake, and watching it is an equally painful experience.
