Written by El Puerquito Magnifico
Awake is, to the best of my knowledge, the first film to tackle the concept of anesthetic awareness, in which a patient is fully conscious of their experiences throughout surgery, though they are completely paralyzed and helpless to do anything. They can hear everything going on around them, they can feel every second of pain, but they cannot alert anyone to their suffering. I don’t mean to make light of anyone’s tragedy, but the same description can be used to describe how I felt watching this movie to write my review. Trapped. Forced to listen and endure the pain. Hearing everything and feeling incredibly uncomfortable, but having no power to stop it. My apologies for a tasteless joke – but bad movies inspire bad humor.
Awake, written and directed by Joby Harold, tells the story of Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen), a young businessman involved in a secret love affair with his mother’s personal assistant, Sam Lockwood (Jessica Alba). Clay suffers from an undisclosed heart condition that necessitates a heart transplant, and he intends to have his friend Dr. Jack Harper (Terrance Howard) perform the surgery despite the four malpractice suits Harper is facing. Clay’s overbearing and domineering mother (played with an incestuous flair by Lena Olin) wants the procedure done by a close friend of hers, who is one of the top doctors in the world.
Clay and Sam reveal their engagement to his mother, a fight occurs, the couple rush to get married, and on that very same night, a donor is found. Clay is rushed to surgery, and on the operating table, he experiences anesthetic awareness. Completely awake and aware of the slice of the scalpel, the discomfort of the breathing tube, and the opening of his chest cavity, Clay is nevertheless able to crack a few jokes and delight the viewer with a terribly monotone voiceover. During the procedure, he also becomes enlightened to a devious plot to end his life. The rest of the film is essentially Clay reliving the first half of the movie via an out-of-body experience, and figuring out the details of the crime, along with learning a life lesson or two.
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