Forty years ago, Awake might’ve been original, might’ve been worth seeing. In 2021, it’s tired and derivative, a frustrating movie that serves no purpose and executes its premise so limply you'll question whether anyone could do it right.
After a mysterious power outage, everyone suddenly loses the ability to fall asleep. The longer they stay awake, the more irrational their behavior becomes. As civilization is plunged into chaos, Jill Adams (Gina Rodriguez) realizes her daughter Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) can still fall asleep. She may hold the key to a cure but with the world going mad, is it safer to keep her secret hidden?
When watching a movie, you have to remember that the characters don’t know what kind of story they’re in. If someone wanders into a dark basement, it can be forgiven as long as they take the same kind of precautions you do on an average day. Despite this, movies filled with bad decisions can easily be frustrating. No one wants to cheer for the idiots. The aggravation you feel when someone doesn’t shut a door behind them, goes into a place they’ve got no business exploring, ignores clear instructions, can’t get their head on straight when a life-or-death scenario presents itself are constant in Awake. Worse, they’re compounded by its premise. As humanity becomes increasingly sleep-deprived, everyone's decision-making skills keep getting worse. In theory, it's scary. Someone could turn on you at any moment, the world is becoming more unhinged with each minute. In practice, it’s a movie in which everyone’s IQ and sanity dip the further in you get. The one exception is Matilda, whose ability to sleep means she’s always mentally sharp. Unfortunately, she’s a rather stupid 10-year-old her older brother, Noah (Lucius Hoyos), isn't much better.
If Awake did something interesting, you might forgive its flawed premise. Unfortunately, this is the same movie we’ve seen a thousand times. Everyone now falls into three camps: sacrifice-crazy cultists, murder-happy gangs, or victims for the other two. You’ve witnessed this collapse of civilization too many times to keep track. Director Mark Raso fails to do anything new with this story by Gregory Poirier (whose filmography only contains one good movie as far as I’m concerned: The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride). We’ve all felt the exhaustion that comes from staying up so long you feel like your brains are getting ready to leak out your ears but you never recognize it here.
Awake is a waste of time. You can see it for the price of a subscription (so free, kinda) and from the comfort of your own home, but why bother? You’ll only be reminded of other pictures that did all of this before and/or better. Awake doesn’t have a lot of gore but when it does, it piles it on excessively. The characters are not likeable, the premise is not good, and the conclusion is worse. It may be new but that doesn’t make it worth checking out. (June 10, 2021)
