Awake Movie Review.

If you are one who wants an average story, but some interesting turns and twists, and a good suspense in the end, then this movie is for you. The story focuses on a man who suffers "anesthetic awareness" and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed, during heart surgery. His mother must wrestle with her own demons as a drama unfolds around them, while trying to unfold the story hidden behind her son's young wife

Awake adds new levels to the title of psychological thriller. Just when you think you know what's going on, a new twist rocks you with a shock bigger than the one before. With a charismatic cast and Jessica Alba going to new lengths as an actress, this movie is sure get your heart pumping. Hayden Christiansen gives new depth to the term anesthetic awareness. This movie grabs you and refuses to let go. This movie "does for operations, what Jaws did for the water"-Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter. Terrence Howard is slightly confusing and makes you wonder. Every thing is achieved, and this movie deserves more recognition than it is getting. I thank the writer Joby Harold for allowing me to slip into a deep sleep for almost two hours filled with frightening, disturbing, and brilliant dreams.

Awake is most creepy when taking medical procedures to extremes, as Clayton is treated to viewing his own chest being ripped open while the could-care-less surgical team seems to be telling jokes and partying around the operating table. Later, Clayton's ghost wanders around the hospital and a nearby subway platform barefoot and in a hospital gown, mulling his own near death experience. Less convincing but still sufficiently yucky is a related yarn about medical treatment for profit brought to a new low, something we've all likely experienced.

Awake would make a swell double bill with Michael Moore's Sicko or Tony Krantz's recent intensive care malpractice chiller, Sublime, and their shared denunciation of patient abuse. This hospital horror fare also has a lot in common with another flick opening this week about patient paralysis, Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell And The Butterfly.

Suffice it to say, without giving too much away, the plot sickens in connection with a hospital coke machine and a coked up Santa. And that's all I'm going to say upon penalty of being lynched by the movie company. Sex, Lies and Surgical Tape meets I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus. On the whole, an average film, for someone, below average, with a good suspense in the end. Dont matter watching this movie if you are really free and want to see something thrilling, only thrill.

Our Rating: 5.9/10