Awake film review, Hayden Christensen

Oh dear. This is most certainly one of those films I would rather not have seen. Not because it is particularly scary, or gory – it really isn’t – but because it is a complete load of nonsense, is confused in the script and does nothing to help improve Hayden Christensen’s reputation. I’d go so far as to say it lowers it, somewhat.

The plot is incredibly thin, and in fact has three divergent strands that fail to be adequately drawn together in any moving or empathetic way. The acting throughout the film is adequate at best, and in some parts appalling. There is an extended sequence of Jessica Alba on a beach as a memory of the main character and it is pure, unadulterated trash, designed presumably to showcase Miss Alba’s considerably attractive assets and not much more. I can only think there were a few minutes left at the end where someone thought the film was too long, and as a result added in yards of reel that by rights had no place in the editing room in the first place.

Long winded and slow paced doesn’t describe this film with nearly enough accuracy. It was too drawn out and I ended up pleading for it to do something, anything, to keep me awake. Far from the title, I found it tiring, dull, sleep inducing and numbing in ways that clearly the anaesthetic used in the film wasn’t being. The final sequence of an all too predictable plot left the audience with words along the lines of ‘he is …. awake.’ It was met with a gentle snoring sound from around the theatre as more than one viewer had already nodded off.

When leaving a film, any film, I find things to talk about – the best bit, the worst bit, the scenery – pretty much half an hour of dissection (no pun intended). On this occasion all I could think of on the way out was the fastest way to the car to get me away from there. Not since ‘Open Water’ have I seen a film as bad as this one, but once again I suspect there will be fans of this kind of film that will want to level the balance from what I am saying. My advice is that if you have need of about an hour and a half of snoozing, go and see it. If you want to spend that time more productively, watch the grass grow instead.