by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
B Rated R 78 min
First time feature filmmaker Joby Harold imagined a clever screenplay for this dark tale of medical malfeasance involving twenty-something billionaire Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen). He made his money as a stock trading wunderkind, but he has a bad heart. The hook of the premise is a phenomenon called “anesthetic awareness” wherein patients are paralyzed by the anesthesia, but fully conscious, aware of everything that is going on, and unable to tell anyone.
In this case, Clay is aware of much more than the doctors cutting him open and replacing his heart. Writer/director Harold’s story plays on the fear that an incompetent anesthesiologist will leave a patient awake during a major operation. Statistics show that it happens to an alarming percentage of patients. Anyone who has gone under the knife knows that one has a deep fear of being unconscious and not making it through the procedure. Knowing about rampant hospital mistakes, such as surgeons cutting wrong breast or replacing the wrong organ, makes this fear justified.
Leading up to the heart transplant, Clay’s gorgeous fiancee, Sam Rockwood (Jessica Alba), is supportive during his illness. The story picks up when Clay has reached an impasse with his failing heart. He needs a transplant. His mother Lilith (Lena Olin) is dating the nation’s preeminent heart surgeon, and she wants him to do the transplant. But Clay wants his friend Dr. Jack Harper (Terrence Howard) to do the operation. Harper isn’t exactly the best surgeon available, but Clay is loyal to his friend.
In this story, things are not what they seem. In a moment of romantic passion, Clay and Sam get married in a hastily arranged ceremony just prior to his operation. Lilith is livid. She doesn’t like Sam, who was her personal assistant before Clay fell head over heals in love with her. Well, who wouldn’t fall in love with this hottie. Alba plays Sam with sensual moves that heat up a scene or two.
During the operation, Clay does not go unconscious. He feels every incision and the pain of the surgeon spreading his chest out to reveal the beating heart. Clay tries to remember his whirlwind love affair with Sam to distract him from the reality of his situation. What he overhears the operating team discussing goes way beyond the usual surgeon chatter. As the operation progresses, Clay has an out-of-body experience in which he travels around the hospital futilely trying to get someone to listen to him. He’s trapped in limbo, between life and death. What he hears the surgeons saying scares him to the core, but he can’t act on it.
There is a sinister conspiracy at play, and Clay is the victim. How can he warn his mother and the authorities? He’s helpless on the operating table and his spirit can’t be seen or heard by anyone in the physical universe. At this point in the story, director Harold builds the tension deftly to a crescendo of terror, as Clay desperately tries to stop the sequence of events from happening to him. Christensen portrays Clay with proper righteous indignation at his predicament. Alba plays her role with savvy acting skill. Christopher McDonald, who plays the bumbling alcoholic anesthesiologist, ironically ends up Clay’s only friend.
I found this scenario quite frightening, having had numerous operations involving general anesthesia. I always pictured the doctors playing with me, their unconscious toy, by twisting me into a pretzel and laughing or joking, “that is going to hurt like hell.” It’s a clever spin on the suspense and horror genre. It makes one think that when one goes unconscious in the operating theater, one may not make it out of there alive.
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