The Awakening

The Awakening is pretty much what you would expect it to be. It's well made with gorgeous cinematography and strong performances from its cast. And the story if unsurprising is solidly made and well told. The film is directed well and builds a nice amount of suspense throughout. At times its confusing because of the sheer amount of convoluted ideals being thrown around. The story concerns an educated young woman who debunks ghost theories. She is approached by the headmaster of a school to help out with a problem concerning the boys being frightened there. After some convincing she arrives at the location and begins her investigation. Many secrets are discovered and it builds to a somewhat expected finale. For those of you who've seen the brilliant films The Others, The Orphanage and The Devil's Backbone there's not much new here. Still it's competently made and there is a nice slow burn of suspense even culminating in some surprising scares and plot twists. Overall it's a old fashioned classic spook fest with a bit of wit and borrowed imagination from slightly better films. A bonus scene features sexy Dominic West in a solid performance shedding his clothes which is much appreciated but unnecessary like the other "bathtub" scene. And there seems to be niche with that running through the proceedings it's almost as if the people involved with making the film knew they had something that wasn't the most original concept so they threw in unnecessary things to kind of lead you astray it's a little manipulative on their part but keeps you engaged as a viewer and you don't feel too cheated at the films conclusion. Overall it's an elegant, solid but expected ghost story.

I love old-fashioned ghost stories, both in literature and in moving picture. It's a harder genre than people give credit to, especially because it's age. Since it has been done to death, almost every possibility and approach seems to have been covered. However, there are movies that have taken the this tired formula and made splendid films - The Orphanage is a good example of a ghost story done right. The Awakening started off right. The acting was good, the mood was efficiently set and the cinematography gorgeous to look at. I was many times at absolute awe at the beautiful images and camera shots that the movie boosted. However, the central thing in a movie is it's plot, and that's where things get shaky. The plot wasn't that great to begin with and as it progressed became less interesting, managing nonetheless to sustain my interest throughout until the end, which was by far the film's greatest weakness. The ending "twist" came too late and was done with too much haste, which hurt it's already shaky believability. I think the ending despite being far-fetched could still work if done more competently and with more preparation. It's still an enjoyable movie, but the beautiful and eerie imagery would be much better served by a better plot. All in all, a solid 5 for the film, 10 for the cinematography. This cinematographer deserves to be well known, assuming he isn't already.

It's 1921 after the horrors of WWI, England is full of charlatans trying to scam grieving people. Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) is a professional skeptic driven to exposing hoaxes and getting the cons arrested. Robert Mallory (Dominic West) invites her to investigate a ghost at a boarding school. There was a murder long ago that could be the source, and recently a student had died. Florence is met by governess Maud Hill (Imelda Staunton) and the boy Thomas Hill. Teachers and staff soon goes on vacation leaving Florence alone with Robert, Maud and Tom in the school.

This setting has a good old fashion atmosphere. It's basically a big old isolated building with a handful of people and a ghost story. You can't really get any more classic than that. The story does have a convoluted twist that could be quite problematic. I was able to follow the twist, and I'm fine with it. Rebecca Hall is a nice capable actress. And she makes a good avenging heroine and a damsel in distress.

Despite its bland, unimaginative title, I found this a taut, well-wrought ghost film. At times, the plotting reminded me of earlier genre-classics like "The Shining", "The Others" and especially "The Innocents", the latter based on Henry James's definitive "The Turn Of The Screw", all being concerned with the precarious psychological condition of the main character and of course of unhappy spirits from the past returning to impact on the present.

The present here, though, is immediately post-war England, and the tragedy and tension of those times, with the themes of the loss of what Seigfreid Sassoon called doomed youth, the psychological (and physical) scars on those that survived the Great War while their friends perished (personified here in the character of Mallory) as well as the enmity between those that fought and those that didn't (the latter portrayed in the character of Judd, the school caretaker), loom large in the character studies presented here.

At its heart however is the complex character Florence, a vintage if very young, "ghost- buster" if you will, herself bearing guilt over her part in the loss of her own soldier sweetheart, eventually takes on, at Mallory's beseeching, a new case, involving the unexplained death of a young boy pupil at a remote boarding school, supposedly haunted by an earlier pupil from years before.

The story takes many twists and turns with some scares and jumps along the way, revealing its major twist effectively and by the end just about explains its complexities although I'm sure there are still some strands I'm not quite connecting in the summing up.

The period is evoked excellently, the cold, austere boarding school in particular and the acting too is very good by all especially Imelda Taunton as the the school matron whose importance to the story becomes clearer as it progresses and particularly Rebecca Hall as the central character of Florence, her haunted eyes and blank expression well conveying the fragility of her character beneath her initially super-confident Holmes-ian demeanour.

If I have a criticism, it is that the Florence character is probably too overloaded with her various neuroses plus a lot happens to her in the narrative, but as in the end, it turns out to be all about her anyway, maybe I should grant the director and writer a little more licence.

Anyway, more psychologically thrilling than downright scary, this was my type of ghost film, just right for a late night viewing.

I found "The Awakening" to be a breath of fresh air for the Horror/Suspense genre. With so many shaky cam, found footage, reality show type horror/suspense movies hitting the box offices and living rooms around the world with poor character development, over the top torture and gore, plots so thin they are the only transparent ghosts in the picture. "The Awakening" is bound to be an instant classic! It's done with just the right amount of restraint, it has a rather Hitchcockian tone to it.What you don't see is far more suspenseful and adds to it.Sometimes less really is more. There is a fine line to walk especially with a ghost story, to achieve that sense of spine tingling, skin crawling feeling and that element can only be teased from the psyche with mystery, not in your face guts or a head being lopped off - that is shock value and gross out, which is perfectly fine for a slasher pic or a grind house movie, but not a good ghost story.

"The Awakening" is set in 1921 England, our Protagonist Florence Cathcart a free thinking, strong willed ghost buster, author and hoax crusher opens this gem of a movie by diving right into the fray. Mediums, psychics and séances' were all the rage during that time period, which began with the religion of spiritualism. Spiritualism developed and reached its peak growth in the 1840's to the 1920's. With many patrons from the Aristocratic and famous class, like Abraham Lincoln joining his wife for a séance after the death of their young son. After WWI many bereaved souls were searching for a connection to loved ones lost either from deadly illness or the horrors of war and were further victimized by unscrupulous charlatans seeking only coin and selling false hope. Florence's main objective is to put a stop to this and shed light and truth on the subject of death, the afterlife and ghosts. But after being invited to a supposedly haunted old grand estate that was converted into a boy's boarding school, with a recent death of a student and a rumor of an old murder and sightings of a ghost, Florence finds much more than school boy pranks and hoaxes - she finds something good, something frightening and something truly enlightening.

The character development in "The Awakening" is done perfectly with solid performances from the entire cast. The cinematography is excellent as is the entire production tip to tail. From sets and wardrobe to the musical score. The research done for the story and time period is what really brings this ghost story to life. It's the small details and creepy little surprises that all add to the reality of the time this story is told and the ensuing mystery. I must also comment on the pacing - this movie wasted no time, it's no action packed, a scare a minute kind of movie, it's far more subtle, but it's never slow or boring and nothing is wasted.

As a true horror/suspense connoisseur (I have a degree in film production and I was a make-up artist/Stylist for print, film and T.V. for 12 years.) I'd like to comment on some of the cynical and negative reviews. One cannot simply lump all horror and suspense films together. There are many subsets of the genre (Slasher, Grind House, Mystery, Supernatural, Creature, Occult, Gothic..etc.)and each has it's own flavor so to speak. You cannot compare a movie like "A nightmare on Elm street" to "The Changeling". Though they are both considered to be horror, one is supernatural slasher and the other is classic ghost story. Even when comparing movies in the same subset like "The house on haunted hill" with "The Haunting" both of which have remakes, have huge differences, usually found in the details and presentation and should be considered unique in their own right. While it may be true that there is nothing new under the sun and we've all seen the same plots and themes over and over again - I have found there is always something new to add to the age old themes.

This movie is in my top 10 of great ghost stories - 8 out of 10 stars for "The Awakening".