Awake

I first saw Hayden Christensen in an episode (actually a two parter!) of GOOSEBUMPS back in the late '90s and I remember my daughter mooning on about how cute he was. Not long after I came across Jessica Alba on the new FLIPPER and I remember said daughter wholloping me in the head, hard, as I gather it was pretty obvious what I was thinking. Here in AWAKE we have the two beautiful people in what turned out for me to be a rathering interesting and accomplished tweenie thriller. Not quite the horror film they would have you believe but an intriguing premise which is one of anesthetic awareness or "hey, I'm fucking awake here folks, sew my chest back up will ya!". Taken in context and being aware of the demographic the studio was trying to reach AWAKE can be a very satisfying watch. Alba actually does some of her best work to date and it's nice to see Christensen without a lightsaber. Lena Olin has some fine moments and it's always great to see Fisher Stevens but I was most impressed with Joby Harold. This is his directorial debut and only film to date and I certainly like what I see so you may wish to keep an eye out for his work in the future.