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Wealthy young businessman Clayton (Hayden Christensen) marries his fiancée (Jessica Alba, competent for once) just before going in for heart transplant surgery conducted by a friend (Terrence Howard), rather than his mother’s (Lena Olin) preferred, nationally recognized doctor. When Clayton becomes one of the estimated 30,000 patients each year who don’t respond to anesthesia and remain awake but paralyzed during surgery, he learns that he may have misjudged some of the people he’s trusted with his life.

Big question: Can Alba end 2007 on a high note after starring in the dreadful sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and even worse comedy “Good Luck Chuck”?

Skip it: Christensen may have stopped reading the script once he found out he gets to slosh around in the tub with Alba. Had he continued, he would have discovered that the movie’s full of red herrings that keep you guessing but that the ending will only make sense to someone who’s had a brain transplant.

Catch it: If you agree with Dr. Harper (Howard) that people only sue for malpractice because they don’t know what to do with their grief. Ya know, that, and for actual malpractice!

Bottom line: Only devout viewers of televised surgeries—or, perhaps, the “Saw” franchise—will be glad that a decent chunk of the not-even 80-minute “Awake” takes place in the (completely far-fetched) operating room. Others will consider the logic of the entire thing and wonder why one of the movie’s producers hoped, “This film will do to surgery what ‘Jaws’ did to swimming in the ocean,” when receiving a heart transplant is slightly less elective than going for a dip.

Bonus: Want to be an anesthesiologist but can’t handle all the training? Based on substitute anesthesiologist Dr. Lupin (Christopher McDonald) just strolling into the OR in scrubs and saying he’s got this one, apparently there’s no communication among hospital staffs anyway! Really makes you feel good about modern medicine.

mpais@tribune.com

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