The next step involves the discovery of a suitable heart, and the onset of our anesthesia awareness. As revealed in the trailer, while under the influence of the paralyzing anesthetic, Clay hears that his surgeons plan on leaving him to die in exchange for a fat payday. The movie then shifts from being about the awareness to finding the truth behind what is going on, why they want him dead, and just how is he going to survive.
To reveal any more of the plot would ruin the surprises that you may already see coming and who am I to reveal the gymnastics that the script goes through to make sure that everything fits? And fit everything does, even if it is all a little too convenient.
I think my biggest problem is the way the story unfolds. Shortly after establishing the anesthesia awareness it gets dumped for something more akin to the out of body experience of The Invisible. This effectively throws out the cool medical concept. If that isn't bad enough, the final resolution doesn't even involve Christensen at all. How is that for a kicker? As far as the story goes, Christensen's actual involvement ends with his chest getting opened up.
Yes, the story is a letdown. However, there are moments mixed in that are very good. As the climax nears we get an interesting visual cueing impending death that is highly effective. Lena Olin steals the show as Lilith. Her performance is very strong as her motivations are slowly revealed and her character grows exponentially. She delivers so much more than I could have expected. She elevated her game, and by doing so elevated the game of everyone she shares the screen with. In particular, she has some good scenes with Jessica Alba, who gives glimpses of ability. Hayden Christensen, on the other hand, is as bland as ever. Granted, I think the character was supposed to be like this, but there is a difference between being purposefully flat and just having a bland persona and I am not sure that he knows the difference.
Article comments
1 - terra
Towards the end of the movie the monitor was showing asystole-- which is when the heart is not beating at all. The only treatment for this is to start CPR and give drugs-- it is not treated with shocking the patient, which is what the movie did. Also-- the doctor was shouting that the patient was in fib and shouting for amiodarone-- Afib is not a lethal rhythm!! People are walking around in afib in this country! Yet the monitor was showing asystole-- for any nurse, doctor, med tech, ANYONE in the medical field will easily catch this huge error... just made the whole movie stupid from there out-- !