Awake

The billionaire Clay Beresford goes in for a heart transplant and the anaesthetic fails. His body is paralysed, his mind is awake, and he can hear the conversation over the table, which turns out to be a conspiracy against him. The idea comes from a real medical condition, anaesthesia awareness. Anaesthesiologists in Ontario attacked the film for getting the science completely wrong, disputing both its claims about how often this happens and the procedure it depicts. Hayden Christensen plays Clay and Jessica Alba plays his wife Samantha. MGM released it on 30 November 2007. On an 8.6 million dollar budget it grossed 32.7 million worldwide and opened at number four. Reviews were mostly negative. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus grants an interesting premise while calling for tighter performances and more efficient direction and editing. Roger Ebert was the exception with three stars out of four. At the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards Alba was nominated for Worst Actress and she and Christensen for Worst Screen Combo. Who it is for: viewers who like single-idea medical thrillers. Who it is not for: anyone uneasy about surgery scenes, or who wants a coherent plot. The second half abandons medical logic entirely.