“Suspension of disbelief” is the concept of letting go of what is the norm and believing in what is out of the box. Movies demand this of viewers all the time. The catch about this concept is that you have to be able to suspend your disbelief for either a scene, a moment or an idea being presented on-screen so that the rest of the movie can make sense. In Awake, the not-so-moving thriller by first time director Joby Harold, it’s hard for us to keep our disbelief for that long.

Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is a billionaire who has a fiancée (Jessica Alba) that no one knows about, a mother (Lena Olin) who is always hovering over wherever he goes, and a doctor (Terrence Howard) who is essentially his best friend. He has a serious condition and needs a heart transplant to save his life. After declaring his independence from his mom by marrying Sam (Alba), a heart finally becomes available. Now it’s time to get to the operating room. A little anesthesia is injected and finally the big twist of the film begins to unravel.

The beginning of the film is bothersome for the mere fact that it seems too unreal. His wife is perfect in every way that her flaws go unnoticed by Clay but can be seen by us. Dr. Harper (Howard) is always talking about trying to separate Clay from his mother and Clay finally does that by marrying Sam. Then on their wedding night, a new heart finally emerges to save the day, coincidentally.

So your “suspension of disbelief” is already at work, having all these “perfect” characters surrounding Clay, but you’ll still follow along to see where it’s going to lead. Then, the anesthesia that is given to him leaves him motionless but awake. He is aware of everything around him but is unresponsive to physical movement. As he is awake, he begins to see that the whole marriage, friends and procedure are part of a bigger plan. But the way Harold is directing, you might’ve figured this out 15 minutes into watching.

It’s hard to say who’s at fault for a script that is so blatantly obvious, either the screenwriters or the director. Fault the director on this one. Not only does he foreshadow ideas too early, like Sam hiding mail from Clay or revealing that Dr. Harper already has three malpractice suits against him, Harold doesn’t even focus on the anesthesia part of the movie for that long. Clay is given an out-of-body experience so he can learn about his supposed friends, which lasts for the last good 40 minutes of the film but the pain and suffering from his being chest cavity being opened and having his rib cracked lasts no longer than 3.

Another problem is that we are to “suspend our disbelief” again when both Clay and his mom are having a conversation in a dream-like world of their own. Clay is technically still alive at this stage of the film but his mom isn’t. That kind of inconsistency just doesn’t add up. At this point, our heads are exploding for the mere fact that we have to believe what we are seeing up on the screen to be true.

A good thing that did come out of this film, besides the fact that Harold might not get another directing job anytime soon, is the acting is pretty solid. Christensen, best known for giving Anakin Skywalker no life or emotion at all, does show some here. When his character is asked to be sad and mellow, it works but as soon as he is supposed to show some pain and suffering, it was inconsistent. Alba, who is always eye candy, finally shows us some hope that she can be considered an actress. Sam is the one that cons Clay and almost us as well, if it wasn’t for the whole “perfect” set-up director Harold employed. Olin plays the overzealous mother right on point, worrying about Clay every step that he goes. Howard is serviceable by being the moral compass of the film, dealing whether doing the operation is ethical to him or not.

It’s not hard to believe in something. All you have to do is sit there and think to yourself, is it possible? If it is, then it’s believable. It might not be probable, but it might and can happen. But with all the information given to you, do you really believe that while in an anesthetic state, that you can solve a whole diverse plan just by listening, looking at flashbacks, talking to your dead mother and all the while being aware of the pain of the surgery at hand? Depends on how much “suspension of disbelief” are you willing to allow.