Wide Awake

"Rosie O'Donnel is hilarious!", says the box. The descriptions are misleading. THIS IS NOT A COMEDY. It is amusing at times, very slow, and emotionally moving. Even though I was expecting comedy, I watched the whole thing. That says something.

This was the first film written and directed by M. Night Shyalaman, who would go on to make a film called "The Sixth Sense" a few years later. They're not exactly the same genre of movie, but they both have a very similar feel to them, in both dialogue and overall tone & pacing.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch, and worth the rent, if you can dig it out of the children's section at your local video store (it's rated PG). Good performances from all, with maybe only 1 or 2 scenes giving themselves away, something "The Sixth Sense" wasn't guilty of at all.

That said, it's worth something as a milestone, as well... compare the early works of David Fincher or even Ron Howard, and notice how they got better as they went along, making more movies. This movie is a solid B+, with The Sixth Sense being the obvious A. We can only guess what "Unbreakable" may hold for us.

Great actors and writing in this one, regardless. It is very much the story of young Josh and his search for God, and is not at all a Rosie O'Donnell movie as you may have been led to believe. Well worth watching. Denis Leary never looked so nerdy.

When his grandfather dies, Joshua is left feeling lost and confused. Full of questions he begins to search for God in order to get answers. Turning to priests as well as other religions, Joshua is frustrated by his lack of progress but soon learns more than he thought on his journey.

Like many of those who have recently seen it, I was drawn to this film by the fact that Shyamalan directed it shortly before hitting big with Sixth Sense. The film isn't like his more recent straight-dramas with a twist, so beware what you expect; this is more a human story and, as such, it isn't totally successful. It delivers most of the story quite well, managing to be quite touching without ever really falling into daytime tv sentimentality, however something was lacking I felt. The overall story is worthy enough but that side of it never really touched me as much as I would have hoped and it could have been made more of - especially as the ending is focused on that aspect in particular. Also I needed more feeling for the relationship between Josh and his grandfather - the flashbacks were OK but didn't do enough to convey the depth of Josh's love nor the sheer loss he must feel.

Like he did in Sixth Sense, Shyamalan gets good performances out of his child actors. All the support kids are good but Cross is particularly strong and he does very well carrying the narrative. He really is the lead role and nobody else really gets close in terms of screen time. Given this fact I was surprised how many other famous faces were in small roles - O'Donnell, Leary, Loggia and Lauria; they are all OK but none really has more than a supporting role.

Overall, this film was nice but not great. The plot is an interesting one but it doesn't manage to satisfactorily conclude on all the mysticism and ideas that it puts forward. It is still quite a nice little story if you just look at it as a sort of coming of age story surrounding Joshua, but really it didn't quite go where I hoped it would.

My husband and I thought this was an excellent movie! We watched it with our 2 young daughters and it opened a great deal of doors for discussions with them. The casting was wonderful! I had read in an article that M. Night Shyamalan was kind of disappointed with it over-all, and I think that he should re-consider that thought. He states that he wants people to somehow be touched by and to identify with the work that he produces and this movie does exactly that! It hits home on all different levels for young and old.

This is a must see for families!!

Before I saw this film I knew exactly what I was going to do when I grew up, I had my whole life planned out. I knew what job I was going to have and I didn't think anything could change that, alas, I was wrong. I thought I would always be an author, use my imagination for a career and write books. But ‘Wide Awake', this film has made me realise there are jobs very much like a writer, author, job which can actually make my stories come to life, so they don't have to just be inside somebody's head they can be created with so much realism as in a book as well, as in the wonderful movie which changed the way I see my life in the future, When I was watching that film, it really deepened my look upon movies, it was one of the best films I have ever seen, and although it was not full of action, romance, and that much comical feature (in my opinion) it was a heart-warming very dramatically movie in which portrayed excellent acting, especially from the lovely ‘Joseph Cross' and also such beautiful scenes, so meaningful and heart-warming, to me every scene seemed absolutely perfect, some people may not see the utter deep effect it has and may think it is boring, but that is them, if your only interest is in action flicks with meaningless plots other than to blow up things then this film isn't for you, but for everyone else, everyone who thinks of such a movie as more than just a movie then maybe this film will change your life too, I know it has mine, and I know what I HAVE to be when I grow older and choose what I am going to do for a living, I will be a director. And I am sorry if I have not told you much about the film, but I don't know much more to say other than it is a beautiful emotional journey of one boy (Joseph Cross) who tries to look for god, and some things happen which attack his belief in god, but in the end things happen which save it, many different issues are brought up along the way, but the overall message is passed along very nicely which is in my opinion that we all need something to believe in, and that eventually faith should pay off, I know I believe that I finally have something to believe in, in this lifetime, I will make it as a director, and I know I will make a film one day as meaningful as this, and maybe I will change someone's life too. Maybe one day I will make you laugh, make you cry, make you happy, and make you sad, but I know this I will never forget the film which changed my life ‘Wide Awake', and as one of the dramatic and so meaningful lines goes in the movie, I am ‘Wide Awake' now too.

11 out of 10

Francesca Orr

14 years old

Animal lover