There is an absolutely spellbinding short film trapped in the subconscious of the 78-minute mire of twists, more twists, and schmaltz that is Awake. The production of this film screams things like, "Less is more," "Go with what is good here," "Don't make this a Hollywood film," "Lay off the plot twists," and "No one is going to take that seriously." It can be said that there are about 40 minutes of compelling cinema buried beneath another 40 minutes of shameless tripe that only Hollywood can think of, which it assumes the audiences will buy.
You can picture in another time, another place, where the concept of box-office returns is obsolete, what this film would have been. It would have been a lean, mean, nihilistic, little psychological thriller in the vein of The Blair Witch Project or Steven Spielberg's Duel. It would have gripped the audience members by the throat and held them there in that unbearable state where everything is so awful to watch but you cannot look away. It would have been a relentless film experience, unforgettable, and, at the very least, worthy of the audience's $10.
Then the real world barged in. Picture the real world in the form of a cigar-chomping film producer that film critics often write about. First of all, he would have demanded a love interest. Then he would have demanded that the hero of the film have a creepy, overbearing mother who loves her son in a way that can only make one think of Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate. Then he would have insisted that the doctor doing the operation be friends with the hero, and insert a scene of male bonding in the form of a fishing trip in the Hudson. It gets worse.
Then he would have insisted on about 20 minutes of preliminaries. We are talking about pillow talk, corporate meetings, an engagement in the pouring rain, and a wedding. Then the plot twists would have piled on. These are the kinds of plot twists that Hollywood goes absolutely giddy over - the kind that change the reality of everything that goes before, so the viewer can watch the film again, smack his hand over his palm and go, "How the heck did I miss that?"
2008 Woodie Awards
