Awake

Movie Name: Awake
Year of Release: 2021
Director: Mark Raso
Starring: Gina Rodriguez, Ariana Greenblatt, Lucius Hoyos, Shamier Anderson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Frances Fisher, Finn Jones, Gil Bellows, Barry Pepper
Genre: Drama, Action
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
Watch it on Neflix

Synopsis and Review

Mark Raso made a name for himself with his first two features, "Copenhagen" and "Kodachrome", before tackling "Awake", which is definitely more genre specific than his prior features. The film focuses its narrative on Jill Adams, a former US Army medic, who is also a recovering addict. She currently works as a security guard at a local college where she steals drugs from the research lab and sells around the area. She has two kids, teenarger Noah and the younger Matilda, both of whom live with their grandmother. On the day of their pickup to stay with her for the day, Jill's car loses power and is hit by another car, which sends them into the bottom of a nearby lake. While Jill and Noah manage to get themselves out, the young Matilda drowns, but is revived by a police officer which saw what had happened and came to their rescue. He informs them that something has happened which has made all electricity stop working. At the hospital they realize a lot of accidents seemed to have occurred, and people are no longer able to sleep, and even those who were in a coma, suddenly reawaken. The psychiatrist Dr. Murphy, whom Jill works with, tells her that people seem to have lost the ability to fall asleep, and they will soon start dying from sleep deprivation. The only person who still seems to be able to sleep is a woman who is being studied at a compound by the name of The Hub. As it turns out, Matilda is also able to sleep, and her and Noah upon learning about The Hub want to go there for safety. Things start getting out of control very quickly, which forces Jill and her kids to find a way to get to The Hub. 

Another Netflix original film, Mark Raso's "Awake" is a quasi post-apocalyptic type of film, that plays in the tropes of that genre, but doesn't go fully overboard with the whole end of the planet and massive paranoia that some films tend to tackle and illustrate. The director smartly focuses the narrative on a nuclear family that is somewhat fractured, and how this unexpected and massively traumatic occurrence in a way becomes the catalyst for this family to have a new opportunity to reshape their relationships. For the most part this angle is successful, since Jill's attempts to redeem herself feel heartfelt and sincere, though the issue becomes the lack of information that is provided about any of the characters who have some focus in the narrative. Their introductory cue cards are very succinct, almost too succinct, leaving very little room to better understand some of their motivations and why some of the actions they perform take place. As much as the B-movie angle is welcomed, once again there isn't enough detail on central characters to fully make them more palpably realized, even if the actors themselves try their best in bringing them to life. As a result, the film flows rather straightforwardly but not entirely unexpected, including the final chapter where we finally understand a bit more about what has happened, and what may be the solution for the problem they're all tackling. The cast is solid, led by Gina Rodriguez who has great support from Ariana Greenblatt, Frances Fisher, Jennifer Jason Leigh (who is sorely underused), Gil Bellows and Barry Pepper. The production team is competent, but also unremarkable. It's a watchable but also quickly forgettable endeavor.