"Awake" a sci-fi thriller that could put you to sleep

Awake (2021)

“Awake” seems like Netflix’s bid to make another “Bird Box,” but one that might actually deserve the meme-ready derision. Global catastrophe, check. Strong maternal figure, check. Instead of using our sense of sight against us, what if we were all incapable of getting forty winks? Writer-director Mark Raso (2017’s “Kodachrome”) and co-writer Joseph Raso (Mark’s brother) do have an intriguing setup for their apocalyptic concept, except it’s not very thrilling and not at all provocative as a societal breakdown, like Fernando Meirelles’ grimly fascinating allegory “Blindness.” Armed with a few tense set-pieces, “Awake” is competent but not exactly a cure for insomnia.

Military veteran Jill (Gina Rodriguez) is exhausted even before entering a world that can't sleep. She still struggles to keep her sober life on track, working as a security guard at a medical research facility and selling stolen pills for quick cash. Though she lost custody of her children—teenage Noah (Lucius Hoyos) and 10-year-old Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) live with their grandmother (Frances Fisher)—Jill gets a day with them after the night shift. That same day, Jill and her kids are in the car when a power surge shuts down all electric power, sending the family’s car into a lake. Jill and Noah surface, while Matilda is resuscitated on land by a police officer. After that traumatic experience, pandemonium sets in throughout the town over night. As everyone’s circadian rhythm is off and the ability to sleep is lost, Matilda happens to be the sole person who can actually get a good night’s sleep and not keep hallucinating. She naturally becomes a target for researchers finding a cure, including psychiatrist/sleep expert Dr. Emma Murphy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and Jill must do everything to find a safe place for her family.

To the extent that the film's premise works, the Raso brothers do get around exposition by having the unexplainable event cut all electricity (that goes for cell phone usage and no TV or radio broadcasts). As if jumping from the first episode of a TV show to the third, the state of humanity changes so swiftly that it makes one think they themselves have drifted asleep and missed the progression. Within what seems like a day, things have escalated greatly. There’s a crazy church cult, led by Barry Pepper, who wants to sacrifice Matilda for a cure. Looters are becoming murderers. Escaped convicts also happen to be littering the streets near Jill’s car, one of whom (Shamier Anderson) might not be as bad as the others. At one point, Jill—yes, she’s very tired and not thinking straight—stops at an abandoned public library to find a book on mapping; instead, she gives her daughter a quick lesson in target practice, firing her gun inside the library at a stack of books.

Gina Rodriguez puts forth her all with true mama-bear instincts and extreme sleep deprivation as Jill, while the rest of the capable supporting cast is a revolving door of surprising faces who pop in for a scene or two. There are two impressive car-set sequences of showmanship that keep one alert, and even those feel cribbed particularly from the scrupulously crafted single take in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men.” It’s in these moments of life-or-death chaos where writer-director Mark Raso is unexpectedly uncompromising, but the time crunch is never as urgent as it needs to be. Despite being deadly serious with a few misplaced attempts at humor (Matilda finds out that Noah and his girlfriend “did it”), “Awake” too often dares you to laugh at this silly sci-fi nonsense.

Grade: C

Netflix is releasing “Awake” (96 min.) to stream on June 9, 2021.