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| Wide Awake 7 of 10 |
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| Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Cinematography by Adam Holender Joseph Cross Timothy Reifsnyder Dana Delany Denis Leary Robert Loggia Rosie O'Donnell |
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| I'm officially a huge M. Night fan. I love all of his work, from a visual standpoint, a directing standpoint, and writing standpoint, and he is probably my favorite director right now. Signs and Unbreakable are both brilliant films, and they are both among my all-time favorites. I have heaped copious amounts of praise and adulation upon those movies, and also on The Sixth Sense. In spite of all that, I think this little film of his might have more heart than all the others put together. At its core are same of the same issues as the ones dealt with in Signs, although they are treated in a much different way here: the issues of death, of suffering, and of faith. But unlike Signs, where Gibson's adult character struggles with these questions, the main protagonist here is a 9 year old boy, played brilliantly by young Joseph Cross. And I think that it is the very fact that this little boy, named - interestingly enough - Joshua, is struggling with questions that would never occur to him in reality that gives the film its real emotional power. The fact that he is a child, albeit one with a grown-up's mind, makes it possible for us to look at the question in a way that is removed from the real pain and injury it would cause to an adult. For Gibson, his loss of faith is truly wrenching; it separates him from everything that he stands for, and leaves him profoundly alone. With Joshua, there is never that feeling. We know that his question will be answered at last, and that it will not have the kind of damaging effect on the little boy that it does on Graham Hess. It is a feel-good film, but one with a real message. M. Night is showing us, through the eyes of an unbelievably exceptional child, that we should not be afraid, because we are certainly being protected, and everything will be for the best. And the final scene is a wonderful way of emphasizing that fact. I really don't know how M. Night could not be a Christian, because this film definitely is. "I spent this year looking for something and ended up seeing everything around me. It's like I was asleep. I'm wide awake now." |
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