Better than bad

Awake, the latest film to sneak into theaters courtesy of the Weinstein brothers, is actually a halfway-decent little thriller. It’s ridiculous, for sure, and at less than 80 minutes, hardly qualifies as feature length. But it’s also much better than the studio releasing it would have you believe.

Filmed a couple of years ago, it’s been sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Its distributors probably had more than a few arguments about releasing it straight to DVD, but it got its theatrical release in a December week when no other major releases were offered. Sending a distinct signal that the film was junk, the movie was not screened for critics.

Bad move. That automatically raises the ire of some critics, who basically slather their nasty pens with pine tar and swing away at this sort of release. I can tell you right now, there is no way that this film is as bad as critical consensus is saying, last I checked, 12 percent at Rottentomatoes.com. It’s no movie miracle, but it engages the viewer from start to finish, offers some great twists, and boasts a handful of decent performances.

Hayden Christensen, a.k.a. Darth Vader, stars as Clay, a rich boy with a bad heart. He’s on a donor list for a transplant while living with his dominating mother, Lilith (Lena Olin), and having an affair with Sam (Jessica Alba). He’s chosen Dr. Jack Harper (Terrence Howard) as his transplant surgeon, much to the dismay of mother, who wants Dr. Jonathan Neyer (Arliss Howard, no relation to Terrence) to perform the procedure. He’s “had his hands in presidents,” but he talks in slimy tones, which puts Clay off. In the end, Dr. Harper gets the scalpel.

Clay goes in for his operation, gets put under with anesthesia, and fails to fall completely asleep. He’s aware of the conversations in the room and even feels excruciating pain as they slice open his chest and spread his ribs apart. In a nifty plot device, Clay essentially gets up in his own brain and runs around in his memories, wearing hospital garments and noticing things he didn’t see before.

I won’t reveal any of the big plot twists, but I will say that some of them are rather obvious. Obvious or not, writer-director Joby Harold delivers them competently.

Jack Matthews, movie critic for New York Daily News, says this is “possibly the worst movie of 2007,” and he is most certainly high. In a year when crap like Kickin’ it Old Skool and August Rush has been smeared across the screen, making a statement like this in regards to Awake seems a bit far-fetched. I can understand not liking it, but the film is structurally sound, somewhat innovative, and very well acted.

Alba is good as the new wife who carries her beau’s meds and desperately wants the approval of her mother-in-law. Olin gets a great role as a mysterious mom with dark secrets and perhaps an unhealthy relationship with her son. Howard is also good as the doctor with a few malpractice suits being filed against him. It really does have a decent ensemble cast that does good work with a ridiculous premise. It feels like a quality episode of The Twilight Zone.

Now, I must warn you, the advertising campaigns reveal way too many plot twists. Had I not seen the preview for Awake, I probably would’ve enjoyed it even more. As it stands, it’s a fairly good medical thriller, containing some gnarly open heart surgery gore to balance out the joy of looking at Jessica Alba (Damn, she’s pretty!). It has some plot holes, and takes major license when it comes to spirituality, the dream state and mortality, but I don’t have a problem with that.

Harold, making his writing and directing debut, deserves credit for a decent first time out. Instead, he gets the humiliation of having his movie dumped into theaters with the “no critic screening” stigma stamped on it. Welcome to the big leagues, Joby!