Featuring youth-friendly costars Hayden Christiansen (Clay Beresford) and Jessica Alba (Sam Lockwood), Awake is an attractive, twist-and-turn thriller for teenage moviegoers--and worth keeping an eye on. Clay is a wealthy Wall Street wunderkind in need of heart transplant; Sam is a personal assistant hired by Clay's domineering mother. The pair date secretly for a year to avoid Mrs. Beresford's ire, marry on a whim in the middle of the night, and hours later get a call that Clay's donor heart is available. Clay wants the friendly doctor who saved his life after his first heart attack (Terence Howard) to perform the transplant; Clay's mother wants a famous surgeon and family friend to do the job--and Clay opts for Howard's character. Nothing more about the plot can be revealed without giving away crucial twists, but Clay does experience a horrific condition during surgery known as "anesthesia awareness--he's conscious, can feel pain, but is totally immobile--and goes through some out-of-body experiences as well. Both play significant roles in the narrative.

Awake has some value as a movie you can see with your kids in the theater--just be aware that there's some swearing, a quick-cut clip showing the side of one of Alba's breasts, and a short-but-sensual scene between Alba and Christiansen. You could rent the DVD when it appears on shelves in few months to avoid some of this, but since pretty much all the fat's been trimmed (Awake clocks in at a short 84 minutes), you'd have to explain a lot of background before showing just one scene--it almost makes more sense to show the entire movie. In the end, if you're doing a talk or Bible study on trusting others and discernment—or even near-death experiences—Awake would be a really interesting addition to your illustrative arsenal.