Wake me when it's over

Rating: 4/10 (30 September 2002)

I know, I know, everyone loves this movie. My husband did too, until I watched it with him. I enjoy sci-fi and suspense very much, but I spent most of the movie squirming in my seat and checking my watch. I don't mind movies that move slow (I loved Road to Perdition, which friends complained was too slow), but this one kept me struggling to stay awake. Every time a little suspense started to build up, it was squashed by yet another dull flashback of Our Hero's wife's tragic demise. Said demise was contrived to manipulate emotions, which always sets me off. Note to Mr. Shyamalan: the audience isn't as stupid as you think. Trust us to feel for your characters without manipulating us. It would have been much more effective to show the horror of her death instead of just telling us about it. Of course, that would have required lowering the cast's dosage of tranquilizers, which appeared to be fairly heavy. The children especially seemed to wander about the movie in a fog; effective, perhaps, in evoking a mood, if we'd had anything at all to contrast it with.
The worst part of the movie, though, was the bruises I sustained from the anvils being regularly dropped on my head. It's all about faith. I got it already. I'd like to see Mr. Shyamalan go back to trusting his audience the way he did in The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, which were truly wonderful movies.