The Awakening

Nothing is better than a good ghost story.  I love sitting in a dark room holding my breath waiting for that scare that will spike my heartbeat, that eerie tone that will send shivers down my spine, that frightening image that will stick behind my eyelids like an illustration on silly putty.  Sadly, “The Awakening” offered very few of these moments.

That’s not to say the movie is all bad.  The bleak cinematography lent the movie an eerie mysterious feel.  The acting of Rebecca Hall was fantastic.  She gave skeptical Florence Cathcart gravity and sometimes a playfulness that drew me in.  In fact, I thought over all the acting was great.  Top that off with a captivating first scene where Florence exposes a fake séance, which opens an interesting question; Should one lay-bare the deceit of a con-man or should they allow the living to have closure even if the closure is a lie?  That’s an opening to remember, but the film unravels from there.

For one, some character behaviors or decisions go unexplained, even if they are integral to the plot.  When Robert Mallory, a teacher of the boarding school where most of the movie takes place played by Dominic West, tries to convince Florence to investigate the possible supernatural murder of a student she laughs him off.  Robert then offends her by using information from her rough childhood to persuade her she kicks him out, but then takes the job.  Why?  Where did she change her mind?  Was she swayed by his reference to her past?  What happened?  Later, Robert is giving Florence a tour of the school and he suddenly acts ill and runs to his room where he has a shaking fit.  Not quite a seizure, but something along those lines, but this is never brought up again.  His fit of the shakes has no consequence on the story.  Why did we see that?  Surely there is a better way to show that he is a broken man without forcing such a weird scene on me then never saying anything.   Add an eclectic plot and my mind starts wondering.

I could’ve forgiven these transgressions if the movie succeeded in scaring me or at least given me the chills, but that rarely, if ever, happened.  Then the ending was so needlessly convoluted and pointless I’m just left with annoyance that another seemingly promising ghost story has failed to deliver.  Even the love story, which I don’t feel needs to be there but it could’ve been another good point, feels forced.

Some great moments do occur in this movie, so by all means watch “The Awakening,” but they aren’t enough to save this meandering somewhat predictable story.