Here's the dilemma: How to explain how stupid Awake is without ruining what little plot there is.

The story concerns a rich guy named Clay (Hayden Christensen). He has a beautiful girlfriend (Jessica Alba) and he wants to marry her, but he's not sure his powerful mother (Lena Olin) will approve of his choice.

Clay has health problems and he needs an operation. His close friend, Jack (Terrence Howard) is his surgeon, but his mother, always meddling, insists that another doctor operate on her son. At any rate, Clay is readied for surgery but the anesthetic is ineffective. He has the horrendous experience of being fully awake during surgery, but paralyzed -- so he cannot move or make any sound to indicate his terrible situation. (You'll identify.) The viewer gets to hear Clay's thoughts, none of which are too fascinating. He "thinks" his horror at being awake and we get to listen. Ho, hum.

What is interesting, however, is Clay's discovery that somebody wants him to die on the operating table. Believing him to be unconscious, villains speak freely. Gosh! What will happen?

We'll let you find out for yourself, but here's a thought: Unless Clay is going to use the information he hears on the operating table to get the baddies, what is the frickin' #@@!**% point of anchoring a whole movie to the nightmare of anesthetic awareness? Huh? What's that about?

Never mind. The real tragedy in Awake is that you can see how good it could have been, weirdo Oedipal blather and all. The performances are all very solid. The story should have been great. As it is, however, the movie plays like three different stories stuck together with old chewing gum. We're going to guess that a committee did the final edit. We're going to suggest that you skip this one.

(This film is rated 14-A)
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