Awake - Anestesia cosciente

Awake is a surgery thriller released in 2007. Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba were both major stars starring in mainstream films at the time. Both likeable actors whom receiver plenty of backlash for their "lack of acting talent".

However in this film, they both deliver convincing performances. Terrence Howard also has a supporting role and plays it as he has done many times before.

Awake is elevated by its twists near the end. As watching, we may get more of a sense as to what is occurring but in general these turns are quite unpredictable. The way everything gets pieces together was entertaining.

The scenes regarding Hayden in the "out-of-body" experience are quite telling. The use of flashbacks and scenes re-showing him with the cameras from the perspective and point of view of his character are quite clever. In the end, it was left making an engaging enough thriller with a relatively small runtime, and it didn't need to be long.

To me this was an entertaining mystery thriller. In the beginning I thought it was a bit slow but it was just necessary to let you know the characters. Once the surgery started it got interesting. Just the thought of being awake while under narcoses gives me the creeps. Glad I don't have to have surgery anytime soon. About the mystery itself i have to admit I didn't see it coming. And I'm glad about that because that's what makes a movie in this genre successful. About the cast they might not be the best actors ever but they still did a good job, nothing bad to say about any of them. Conclusion, if you do like a bit of thriller with a couple of twists that you don't see coming then you will enjoy Awake.

When I rented Awake I had no expectations really, just another quick grab off the shelf to try my luck. However, I was quite surprised to find that I liked this cunning thriller more than your ordinary every day "waste some time" flick. I thought that the plot and scheme to the story were wonderful. Yes, there were some parts that bored me, and the film seemed even a little egotistical at times, but I was surely concentrated through the whole movie. It certainly knew the sense of keeping the audience on a string whether they cared to be or not.

This is a movie that I had wanted to see ever since the trailer was let out on TV because it looked more interesting than other trailers I had seen at the time, even though I had forgotten what it was about by the time I rented it. There was probably about a few things that bothered me about this film, but I am not going to reminisce on them because overall the movie delivers and you really overlook it's minor problems. Anyway, this movie was entertaining, brilliantly scripted, and shockingly suspenseful. The twist you never see coming and the performances are believable and professional. I loved it for what it was, and a little bit more so..

Some of the hardest reviews to write are the ones where you don't know what to say. "Awake" is one of them. Let me just start with the basics. Do I recommend it? Yes. Is it GOOD? That's what's hard to say about this movie. Some parts of "Awake" are good, but some are merely okay.

Like many thrillers, telling much about the plot defeats the purpose of seeing the movie. However, I will tell as much as I can.

The story goes like this. A rich young man named Clay (Hayden Christensen) goes into the hospital for a heart transplant, and he suffers from anesthetic awareness (meaning he can feel and hear everything, but can't do anything about it). This is key because what he hears changes everything.

That's about all I can say. "Awake" is an entertaining little thriller, and Jody Harold certainly has potential as a writer/director. His low-key handling of the film makes for an interesting, almost dreamy approach, but I don't know if it works like it's supposed to, because I have a feeling that it decreases the amount of suspense that the material warrants. That said, the unusual tone makes up for this deficiency.

The acting is solid too. Hayden Christensen became famous for his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in the second and third "Star Wars" episodes. His first outing wasn't great, and called into question his acting ability. However, his second round with the light saber was terrific, and his performance here shows that "Episode 2" was more likely to be an anomaly than the norm when it comes to his acting ability. His co-star Jessica Alba isn't as good, but it proves that she has more acting ability than many people give her credit for (her reputation for being a tabloid sensation and the limited acting options that result from it are probably to blame). Terrence Howard is solid, but he isn't given much to work with. Same goes for Lena Olin.

Personally, I think it sucks when you like a movie but a lot of that feeling disappears when someone points out something that causes that to decrease. Such a thing happened with me and reading a review after watching "Awake," but I won't say it because it's still a good movie to see.

So, is "Awake" a good movie, or just a movie with enough good points to warrant a viewing? I'd say it's somewhere in between, leaning more towards good.

Thanks to what was the craziness of how hot hot hot Jessica Alba was this past year, a lot of people, including me, really didn't wanna see a movie with her. Yes, she's beautiful, but can she act? The eternal question where I finally saw something, Awake, she actually did a decent job. I rented Awake the other day and watched it, this was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. I have to say, this was a first, I really did not see that conclusion coming. It was awesome to see a movie that had a clever script, was it realistic? I wouldn't necessarily agree, the movie and story does have it's flaws here and there, but if you let them slide, it's a fun little thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Clay has everything: money, a loving mom, a company of his own, a world in his hands, and a beautiful woman, Sam. But unfortunately, his heart isn't so lucky, so much so that he needs a transplant, and his trusted friend Jack Harper is going to do the transfer for him. But his mom is begging him to re-consider and have another surgeon do the operation, but Clay says she just has to trust his instincts, which may be the biggest mistake he can make.

Awake is a pretty cool movie, the actors, some things are over done, but it's a thriller, it's supposed to keep you scared and tense, so I am willing to over look the non-existence of reality, I think this movie meant to be that way. I also just hate to say it, Jessica Alba is decent in the movie and covers herself well in her role as Sam. But the top performance of the film was without a doubt from Howard, he was so convincing and almost made you feel bad for him, well, I don't want to give too much away, you'll just have to see what I mean. But I do recommend Awake, it's a good movie, I'm impressed.

7/10