Awake

Clay Beresford (Hayden Christiansen) is a 22 year old millionaire who is struggling with A. an ongoing heart problem that puts him on the transplant waiting list and B. balancing between the love of his mother (Lena Olin) and his fiancee Sam Lockwood. (Jessica Alba) Things start to look up for him however when his long wait for a heart (due to his rare blood type) finally comes to an end and one is found. The surgery is to be performed by his best friend Dr Jack Harper (Terrence Howard) and everything seems to be going well. That is until the anaesthesia doesn't work and he finds himself in a paralysed state but fully conscious throughout his operation, culminating in a full awareness of the pain and going on's in the operation room during his transplant.

One thing I need to ask as I felt like screaming this all the way through this film, When are people gonna realise that Hayden Christiansen can't act?? I mean come on!! Star wars was bad enough but I figured they must have realised during those films that he was no good therefore he should have been unable to get work after that contract ran out!! But alas no, on we go to see Christiansen in yet another film where he struggles to show emotion and gets his facial expressions totally confused with what is actually going on in the film. Having said all that this is probably the best I've seen him in (doesn't take much) and he did actually surprise me by exceeding my expectations of his acting skills (again this is not much to do) bringing him up to possibly the same level as the Harry Potter trio's performances.

Jessica Alba however did quite well, even if I did spend the whole film thinking that she was waaay too good looking. (yes I think that there is limit to how good looking you should be and she completely oversteps the line) However, something about her never screams out Oscar material and I don't know what it is that holds her back... (not that I could do any better!!)

The film apart from all the above was actually incredibly riveting, I found myself rooted to the spot throughout its entirety and it offered just enough plot turns and excitement to keep me intrigued as to where it was all going to go. I tell you one thing however, if I was ever scared of having an operation before this film that is tripled now after!! Flippin heck!!

The film has doom written all over it from the opening statistics (Every year 1 out of 300 people stay awake during anaesthesia) and followed by Dr Jack Harpers first line about how his friend just died on the table we get anything but a warm fuzzy feeling as to where this is going to go and it definately left me afterwards with an incredibly odd sensation in the pit of my stomach that I still can't explain.

I liked it, it's not ground breaking and they could have done better with some of the cast choices but the storyline keeps your eyes stuck to the screen regardless, will definately be buying the DVD of this one so I will give it a (almost reluctant due to Christiansen) four faces.