Movie Review: Awake

What do you do when you have been immobilized, lying on the cold hard surgical table, waiting to be spliced open for a heart transplant, and suddenly realize that you can still feel pain? He forced himself to focus on his beautiful newly-wed wife; her smiles, their happy moments. The pain becomes bearable.

What would you do then if the most horrific physical pain then becomes matched with the most unimaginable emotional pain? He discovered his surgeon was in cahoots with his wife to kill him for his money.

What would you do if the surgeon told you your 22 year old son, heir to a multi-billion dollar commercial behemoth, had rejected his new heart? She killed herself, so that he may live.

Countless reviews have whinged about the effort put in to keep awake while watching Awake (pun intended). But let us be fair. If you watched the movie expecting some fireworks-worthy romance between Alba and Christensen, you might be let down. Yet, against the backdrop of countless new releases revolving around boy-girl love, I didn't mind that one bit. This movie reminded me that the most powerful love need not always be that between husband and wife, or a girl and her man. But that a mother's love for her son could be just as unconditional and self-sacrificing, if not more.

Rating: 9/10