Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

I thought I was going to trudge through this whole movie, pretty much just letting it play until it was over. Was I ever wrong!

It starts in a Catholic school with a sad kid after his grandfather passed away, who finds himself rather disenfranchised with his notion of who or what God is, or if He is in fact anything at all. This is compounded by the culture of the Catholic school (which may or may not be an accurate depiction), with Rosie O’Donnel hilariously teaching something akin to “Christ in Sports 101”.

The story follows the boy and his theological meanderings as he struggles with the existence of God and mortality and physical reactions to girls.

I’ve encountered films like this before; movies where someone just philosophizes for what seems to be hours on end. I suppose it’s similar to scholars hanging around Socrates while he attempts to unravel the secrets of the universe. But why make it a movie? Film it if you like but why sell it as a movie? Why film it in such a way that implies it has a story? It’s a lecture. Point the camera at a podium and flip the “on” switch. It’s terribly frustrating watching something in which you’re expecting to see a story and nothing really happens.

Well something actually does happen eventually in Wide Awake, so I guess it was worth the wait. Act three goes off with a bang. Good things happen and we have an ending.

…and then we have another ending.

And that was the clincher for me. This is what made it truly worth the wait. I will say nothing to spoil it.

I mentioned to my wife that I had watched this and to my surprise she said she had seen it.

“Oh yes,” she said, “I liked that movie. That was one of M. Night Shyamalan’s earlier ones, wasn’t it?”

WHAAAAAT!?! She’s right! M. Night Shyamalan directed this. I had no idea! No wonder it followed the format it did. It was just like Signs but without aliens!

So this went from a meh to a wow with one final scene. It went from “great, another film where someone gripes for two hours” to “OoOoO I got tingles!” I’m impressed.