The film was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on November 30, 2007, by The Weinstein Company and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It received negative reviews from critics, who criticized the performances (primarily from the leads), direction and editing, but performed moderately well at the box office, grossing approximately $32.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $8.6 million.
Clay Beresford Jr., a young billionaire, is secretly in a relationship with Samantha "Sam" Lockwood, his mother's personal assistant. Despite opposition from his controlling mother, Lilith, Clay plans to marry Sam and undergo a heart transplant under the care of his trusted friend and surgeon, Dr. Jack Harper. Shortly after a private midnight wedding, Clay is admitted to the hospital for the operation.
During surgery, Clay experiences anesthesia awareness, a rare condition where he remains conscious but paralyzed. While enduring the surgical pain, he has an out-of-body experience that reveals a conspiracy against him. Clay discovers that Dr. Harper and Sam are colluding to murder him by sabotaging the transplant with a poisoned donor heart. Their plan involves injecting the heart with Adriamycin, a chemotherapy drug that would cause the transplant to fail, allowing them to collect a large life insurance payout to cover Harper’s four malpractice debts.
Lilith begins to suspect foul play and sacrifices herself by suicide, allowing her heart to be used in place of the sabotaged donor organ. Meanwhile, Sam attempts to cover her involvement, but Harper, overwhelmed by guilt, preserves evidence implicating her in the conspiracy. A new surgical team led by Dr. Jonathan Neyer, Lilith's more competent friend, intervenes and prepare Lilith’s heart for transplant, while the police arrest the conspirators.
As the operation continues, Clay's spirit remains in a liminal state. He experiences a final vision of his childhood, during which he witnesses Lilith killing his abusive father, a repressed memory that provides him emotional closure. Initially resistant to returning to life, Clay eventually accepts his mother’s sacrifice and allows the transplant to succeed. As the surgeons remove his eye tape, Clay regains consciousness, and Dr. Harper's voice narrates the final words: “He is awake.”
Portions of Awake were filmed at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus in New York City. Lowenstein Hall was dressed to resemble a hospital, with the statue St. Peter: Fisher of Men visible in background shots. Additional scenes, including those set in Dr. Jack Harper’s office, the cafeteria where Lilith dies by suicide, and the elevator bank, were filmed at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
Reception
Box office
Awake was not screened in advance for critics and opened at number five at the U.S. box office during its opening weekend. As of July 11, 2008, the film had earned $14.4 million domestically and $32.7 million worldwide, against a production budget of approximately $8.6 million.[1]
Critical response
The film received generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 23% based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 4.23/10. The website’s consensus reads, "Awake has an interesting premise but would have benefited from tighter performances and more efficient direction and editing."[2] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 33 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."[3]
Dennis Harvey of Variety criticized the film's reliance on excessive narrative twists, writing that it "piles on too many narrative gimmicks to maintain suspense or credibility."[4]Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter offered a more positive assessment, noting that director Joby Harold created "a quietly ominous tone that never lets up" and that the film relied more on suspense than graphic violence.[5]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four stars, praising its ability to engage viewers despite negative buzz. He wrote, "I did not anticipate the surprises, did not anticipate them piling on after one another, got very involved in the gory surgical details, and found the supporting soap opera good as such things go."[6]
Industry response
Following its release, the film was criticized by Ontario’s Anesthesiologists, a section of the Ontario Medical Association, for scientific inaccuracies related to anesthetic practices. The group took issue with the portrayal of anesthetic techniques and disputed the film’s claim that anesthesia awareness affects as many as one in every 700 patients. However, anesthesia awareness advocate Carol Weihrer contested their objections, maintaining that the condition may be more prevalent than official statistics suggest.[7][8]
Awake was released on DVD in the United States on March 4, 2008, by Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The Blu-ray edition followed on November 18, 2008, distributed by Genius Products.[10][11]
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