Awake is the sort of movie better off as a two-line marketing gimmick than a two-hour movie.

Hayden Christensen plays Clayton Beresford, a poor little dirt-rich boy suffering from a congenital heart defect and who is under the care of his friend and heart surgeon, Jack (Terence Howard). He has a dreamboat girlfriend in Sam (Jessica Alba) but has to keep their relationship under wraps from his control-freak mother, Lilith (Lena Olin).

Coincidentally, on the night the lovebirds are secretly married, Clayton receives a call that a donor's organ is available.

So, the plot thickens into Gimmick No 1: While on the operating table, Clayton experiences anaesthesia awareness. That is, he's conscious of his body being carved open but is rendered immobile. And, to his horror, he eavesdrops on a conspiracy that makes his heart skip a beat.

This is followed by Gimmick No 2: Clayton has an out-of-body experience and drifts in and out of his past and present, almost as though Christensen is reprising his Jumper role but flitting through time rather than space. It all culminates in Gimmick No 3: Mother issues.

In his debut, writer-director Joby Harold tries too hard to pull off an M Night Shyamalan twist. It doesn't help that Christensen and Alba, while making a handsome couple, aren't exactly known for their acting prowess. The result: A flatliner of a film. - TODAY/ra