This first-time effort from writer-director Joby Harold stars Hayden Christensen as Clay, a super billionaire capital-investment-something in desperate need of a heart transplant.
And who could blame that organ for giving out in the circumstances? He’s terrified of losing hot fiancée Jessica Alba but equally afraid to tell his creepily possessive mother – Lena Olin channelling Mommy Dearest – about his marriage plans.
Mummy is equally disapproving of his best friend Jack (Terrence Howard), a doctor who once saved Clay’s life. Though Clay wants his chum to operate when the time comes, she is determined that a fabulous international surgeon performs the life-saving procedure instead.
Unluckily for our hero she does not get her way. While on Jack’s table Clay experiences anaesthetic awareness, a rare complication arising from too little anaesthesia that leaves the patient awake and aware but paralysed. Ouch.
The pain and trauma prompts an out-of-body experience just in time for Clay to uncover a convoluted murder plot against him. Eagle-eyed viewers, it should be noted, will be way ahead of the astral projection.
It takes a particular kind of moxy to include shots of your villain looking shifty from the get-go but Awake correctly judges that it has enough mystery show panache to get by on. Some excellent surgery bits will cheer fans of the visceral but even the squeamish can enjoy the starry performances. Hayden Christensen, building on his sterling work in Shattered Glass, once again defies that Mannequin Skywalker tag. Terrence Howard, an actor who could bring grace and pathos to Oireachtas transcripts, does not let the side down. Jessica Alba is, well, she’s really, very pretty.