Awake

Awake

Don’t trust anything you hear about “Awake.” Don’t tell anyone about it. And especially don’t look at the poster or ads, which criminally give away a key plot twist. This movie, which wasn’t screened for critics, and which scored an abysmal 13 percent on the Tomato meter from the few who managed to see it, is a surprisingly effective thriller. I went to see it Friday afternoon at a regular theater, not knowing much more than that the buzz was lethal, and sat through it in absorbed silence.

It involves a very young man named Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen), who is very, very rich; lives with his loving but domineering mother (Lena Olin), and can’t bring himself to tell her he’s engaged to beautiful Samantha (Jessica Alba). “The clock is ticking,” warns his best friend and doctor Jack Howard (Terrence Howard). Jack saved Clay in the E.R. after he had a massive heart attack; now he’s on the waiting list for a transplant. “Marry that girl,” Jack advises him, and even invites him into the O.R. for a practice run to illustrate how dangerous the surgery is.

This and other medical procedures are highly unlikely; there are an improbably small number of people involved in the heart transplant itself including a last-minute replacement as anesthesiologist and an uninvited guest gets to put on a surgical gown and watch. But accuracy isn’t really the point here. Suspense is.

This kicks in as soon as Clay realizes he’s not fully under anesthesia: He can hear everything happening around him starting with Jack telling another surgeon about all of this via cell phone while driving somewhere but he can also feel everything. The character does an internal voice-over where he tries to force his eyes open and signal that he’s conscious; then one thing leads quickly to another, and I’ll just leave it at that.

Since the movie revolves around a plot that can’t be discussed, let me just say that while I may be the slowest tomato on the meter I did not see any of these surprises coming; did not expect them to keep piling up; became quite interested in the bloody details of the surgery, and found the supporting soap opera diverting enough.

It’s about a rich kid who believes he can never live up to his father, a mother who believes she must never let go of her son, and the beautiful Jessica Alba stuck between them. Also Clay’s determination to have the transplant done by Dr. Jack, his trusted friend, rather than Mom’s candidate (Arliss Howard), who boasts “I’ve had my hands inside presidents.” He wrote the book on transplants and will become surgeon general. “Well,” says Clay, “I hope Jack has read your book.”

All preposterous, yes; but this leads us into a meditation on why we go to movies in the first place, what works and what doesn’t work. I got involved. I felt genuine suspense.I thought Lena Olin gave a more nuanced performance as The Mother than we were expecting; that there was some plausible tension between her and Alba.And I thought they handled those scenes where Clay imagines he’s left his body, is roaming around the hospital or having psychic dialogues pretty well.

It’s possible that I am mistaken. I have been in the past. AWAKE is only 78 minutes long, written and directed by first-timer Joby Harold, and that feels about right. The movie opens on an overcast weekend when every other movie in theaters seems to have taken a step back from the responsibility of kicking off Christmas shopping season, but what can I say I felt how I felt.

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