Awake is about a rich young man Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) who needs a life-saving heart transplant. Though the movie was released in the USA on November 30, 2007, the film is only released in Russia (January 10, 2008), Portugal (January 28, 2008) and Brazil (March 21, 2008), and will only be released on March 27, 2008 for Malaysia and South Korea, Spain (March 28, 2008), UK (April 4, 2008), Singapore (April 17, 2008).
SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba in the movie "Awake"
Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) has everything. He’s a capital-investment firm chief and a great career awaits him. He also has a beautiful woman named Sam Lockwood (Jessica Alba) waiting for him to marry her. The only problem he is he needs a heart transplant, really fast.
Though Clay is in love with Sam, he is unwilling to tell his mother (Lena Olin) of their relationship due to the fact Sam is the personal assistant of Clay’s mom. Clay suffers from a heart condition that requires a heart transplant.
Clay wants the transplant to be carried out by Dr. Jack Harper (Terrance Howard) who had previously saved his life and is now his good friend. His mother whose boyfriend is a famous surgeon, try to discourage him from going through the operation, due to Dr. Harper’s spotty medical history.
When Clay discloses his relationship with his fiancé, Sam, Clay’s mother does not take kindly to Clay’s haste and asks him to wait until he is older. Clay becomes upset and leaves with Sam, and asks Dr. Harper to arrange a wedding. They marry privately at midnight. Clay then goes to the hospital for the operation. His mother tries to dissuade him again and refers him to a better clinic and a better doctor. She also refers to Dr. Harper as second class doctor. Clay brushes aside her concerns as attempts to interfere with his life and continues with his original plans. During surgery, Clay encounters “anesthetic awareness” and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed. The movie mentions 1 out of 700 patients suffer anesthetic awakeness. But the actual fact is 1 to 2 out of 1,000 patients suffer awakeness in US annual surgeries.
To escape the pain, Clay’s soul gets out of his body and uncovers a murder plot against him. Clay manages to find out that Dr. Harper and two others are planning to inject his transplanted heart with a chemical that will cause rejection upon transplantation. Dr. Harper is having second thoughts when Sam comes in to encourage him to go ahead with the plan. Meanwhile, Clay’s mother anxiously awaits for the results of the operation.
When the malpractice doctors tell Clay’s mother of Clay’s heart rejection, she becomes dejected. In the end, she intentionally overdoses and calls her boyfriend to return and save her son. Her boyfriend returns to remove Dr. Harper and his malpractice surgeons and transplants the mother’s heart into Clay. Dr. Harper locks himself in his office awaiting his inevitable arrest. Meanwhile, Sam claims her innocence in the matter but since Dr. Harper holds the syringe with her fingerprints all over it, she becomes helpless and tries to escape when the authority arrives. Harper expresses remorse for his actions and does not try to stop being arrested. It is revealed that all of this was Sam’s idea in order to get Clay’s money to pay for all of the malpractice suits against the team.
Although the transplant is a success, Clay refuses to leave limbo believing he has nothing left in the outside world after his mother’s death and fiancé’s betrayal. His mother comes to him and reminds Clay that limbo with his mother and an afterlife with his father is worthless as his father was an abusive drug addict. During a quarrel she accidentally murdered him to prevent him from harming her son. Clay decides that his life is worth living, and the movie ends with the words, “He is awake.”
My ratings: 6 out of 10. Sex, Lies, Murder, Attempted Murder and Heart Surgery — what’s more heart-pumping than these?
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