Wide Awake

Reflecting the zeitgeist of the last decade, with children increasingly having to come to terms with the untimely deaths of parents and friends as a result of AIDS and other illnesses, Wide Awake tackles its issues with an admirably uncompromising honesty, though it suffers from being dramatically obvious. [16 Mar 1998, p.64]

I wonder who the movie was made for. Smaller kids, I'm afraid, will find it both slow and depressing, especially the parts about why God allows bad things to happen. Read full review

Shyamalan's story is clearly autobiographical, and he imbued the tender tale with a wistful atmosphere as well as a kindly regard for parochial school, hitting some of the details just right. Read full review

Overall, Wide Awake is a sound concept that fell considerably short of its goals. [27 Mar 1998, p.B]

The film pursues its sensitive material with the appropriate degree of care, but the direction by M. Night Shyamalan turns potentially provocative moments into dull eddies of melodrama. Would have made a perfect “After School Special,” however, it barely makes it across the finish line as a feature film. Read full review

The problem with Wide Awake, which was shot by ace cinematographer Adam Holender in rich, autumnal tones, with interiors full of inspirational shafts of light, is that there isn't a genuine moment, or character, in the whole thing. [27 Mar 1998, p.14]

The interest-generating theme of a boy coping with loss is made top-heavy with cuteness, causing it to collapse a quarter of the way through Wide Awake, never to recover. Read full review

Wide Awake imagines it's a seriocomic "coming of age" film radiating waves of healing sweetness and light. But beneath its suffocating, smug sentimentality, you have to look hard to uncover a single moment of truth and genuine feeling. Read full review

Rosie O'Donnell's bracing freshness and genuine likability cut through the cloying stuff every time, but there's nowhere near enough of her to balance things out. Read full review