Sleep Deprived; Awake Review

A man wakes up during heart surgery...that's the plot of "Awake", but what if i told you this is actually a pretty good film? It is. What on paper seems like a thin premise and so-so cast (Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba), so it shouldn't work. Surprisingly this film takes everything it has, which isn't much, and creates a decent film. Christensen is a rich young man who has everything, his family owns a large chunk of the city, he's engaged to Jessica Alba, and he and his mom are best friends. He has a heart condition and is in need of a heart transplant, but during the operation he wakes up, but is unable to speak or move. While this in itself would make a decent short story, mystery and intrigue are thrown into the mix when it turns out some people might benefit from Christensen dying on the table. The most "action" is the first scenes of surgery which can get pretty intense, but luckily Christensen has an "out of body experience", sort of, and wanders different parts of his memories leading up to the surgery. The movie has a very "Hitchcockian" feel to it with its tense narrative. If you liked "The Number 23" you might like this. At the very least, check it out if you get a chance, it might surprise you. It gets a 3.5 outta 5