User Reviews

Shyamalan's second feature is a very sweet, good natured and funny look at belief during trying times. It focuses on a young boy Joshua Beal (Joseph Cross) a student at a catholic school, who goes on a spiritual journey to find God after his grandfather dies. There is an incredibly close relationship between him and his grandfather played by Robert Loggia and this is the emotional centre of the story; both performances really shine particularly in these tender moments shown between them and you genuinely believe in their characters, making the impending passing very sad to watch. Cross is the stand out in the film who at such a young age naturally manages to convey all kinds of emotions just through facial features; particularly confusion! There is a lovely appearance also by Rosie O Donnell as Joshua's teacher Sister Terry who is of course very funny but also portrays a sensitive and understanding role model very well. My only reservations about the film are it's soundtrack and the ending. Both of these do over egg the sentimental aspect of the film which does slightly tip over the edge making it a bit too sickly sweet to watch at points. Nevertheless, it's still a nice gentle watch and I'd recommend seeking it out if you fancy something to watch that you can just relax and enjoy

An average drama of M. Night Shyamalan right before his most successful film. The film revolves around a 10 year old in search of God. Though some interesting parts are there, the film as a whole is little boring. It was a goosebumps moment to see the name of Indian cinematographer Madhu Ambat in the end credits.

Evidently, this was made in 1995, and was not released until 1998. (Though where it could've possibly played I have no idea). I don't want to be too harsh on it, because it is from the same writer/director of 'The Sixth Sense', a film that I believe will be regarded as a classic some day - if it isn't already.

So many of the same themes and ideas are present here as in "The Sixth Sense", (principally a sensitive young boy suffering under the weight of colossal thoughts and emotions that most kids his age either shun or never consider until years later) that it is interesting to view with that in mind. Unfortunately, however, the film has a hard time standing on its own. I did find it too be too mushy and sentimental and precious in spots - if this film were a car it would be a spotless antique that looks great on a showroom floor - but closer inspection would reveal that it has no engine under it's hood. Or at the very least, no gas in the tank. There isn't enough juice to make the story go, to move forward more than an inch or two at a time. A young boy's beloved grandfather dies, which causes him to go on a mission to verify the existence of God. All fine and good, but there isn't enough of a sense of jeopardy, everything's too safe and easy. The film would've had more gravity and weight if the boy had actually left home and set off for some destination where he believed he might find the answers. Instead, he merely repeats his intention and doesn't do a whole lot to achieve his goal. There just isn't enough there ... there. Certainly not enough to support an hour and a half long feature film.

Having said all that, it does have moments where it approaches the magical. Flashbacks with his grandfather are moving, especially the race track scene where the boy falls down in the middle of the race and then finishes and runs into his grandfather's arms. But the director (I couldn't spell his last name if I tried and I'll lose what I've written if I go back to look) just isn't as sure of himself here as he would later become with "The Sixth Sense". This film lacks the ingenious structure that made his next effort so satisfying. At this point in his career, 1995, he still hadn't found his voice yet; or that key that unlocks the section of his brain that elevates his work from the mundane to the sublime.

Fascinating to watch that development take place with an artist as thoughtful and talented as this one.

I caught this unique, heartwarming film on cable in one of those "there is nothing on television" moments. I did not expect to fall in love with this beautiful story of a young boy in search of God. It deals with themes such as family, faith, and acceptance. What started out as a "kid" movie ended up in being a movie for people of all ages. It even made me kind of like Denis Leary. Look for a good performance by Robbert Loggia as the grandfather. If you've ever had or wished for a special relationship with a grandparent, watch this movie. You'll laugh, cry, and it might make a believer out of you.

So I'm relaxing (sobering up) on a fine Sunday morning when what do I see on UPN (latterly CW)? this movie. I wasn't interested in it for the first few minutes, and then I saw Shyamalan's name come up on the credits as writer and director. Like any self-respecting movie connoisseur I grabbed the remote intending to change the channel to any other paid advertisement that would have been more worth my time.

Maybe it was laziness, maybe part of me was interested, maybe I felt bad about considering Shyamalan a hack after only watching and not enjoying one and a half movies of his (Sixth Sense and the end of the Village), but I watched it and it was great. Humor? Strong dialogue? Emotion? Utter lack of pseudo-intellectuality? This doesn't sound like Shyamalan!? What the (exp. del.) happened to this guy? M. Night Shyamala tackled a simple and realistic story and it worked, no ghosts, no superheroes, no aliens, no giant porcupines, and no water-nymphs, just a boy going through what boys go through, pure existential crisis (or in another word, "puberty") Of course it's also his lowest-rated movie on IMDb (not counting "Praying with Anger") which shows you something about the modern world.

So, my world was turned on its head. My brother always said "every good director will make a bad movie, and every once in a while a bad director might make a good movie" but I never expected something halfway this decent to come from Shyamalan. My new open mind concerning Shyamalan was soon re-shut when I read about his dissatisfaction with the movie and his lack of total freedom with the project. "Whew, what a relief. I was starting to think you weren't some story-driven, twist-crazed, formulaic egotist and were rather a guy who has trapped himself in his own image. Good to know I can still hate you. Oh, and liking the color red (symbolizing death in this movie, too, don't you know?) doesn't make you a genius or an artist, but making a movie (like this) that doesn't rely on plot twists to sustain the audience's attention, is a step in the right direction." For every one interested in a good cry, this movie takes some low-blows to get you there, but I'll be darned if they don't do the trick.

Good story, but the film is marred by "pretentious child actor" overload. Children really do not speak this way. ALL of the children in this film suffer from an overwritten script. The lead child actor, Joseph Cross, spends the entire film (with the exception of one scene) with a depressed scowl on his face. True, he is a sad little boy, but it becomes very annoying nonetheless. The film comes off very heavy handed and preachy at the end.

While I am not a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan I enjoyed most of his movies and having heard few times of this (his debut) I really hoped to see it one day. And it might seem like a coincidence, but I saw it the day before I saw OLD (his most recent movie to date) in theaters with my best friend.

Joshua Beal (Joseph Cross) is a young kid that is living his fifth grade year in a private catholic school just a year after he lost his beloved grandfather (Robert Loggia) and this moves him in search of answers about life and death because the adults in the world he lives didn't convinced him successfully of the fact that his grandpa is now in good hands. In this is helped by his best friend Dave O'Hara and Sister Terry (Rosie O'Donnell) that is also his teacher. He will find answers in an unexpected way.

Considering how much many hate most of today's movies directed by Shyamalan (such as THE LAST AIRBENDER and AFTER EARTH) I was bound to hate this, but in the end I was partially wrong. Yes, it was a bit boring in some spots, but it had good performances by all and a nice character study, and of course like all other movies directed by Shyamalan, an unexpected twist.

If you like some of M. Night Shyamalan's movies you shouldn't miss this film if you have the chance despite is a bit forgotten today.

Corny, unrealistic tale of a young boy on a quest for enlightenment after being totally confused by his empty headed religion. Now, how many little boys do you see giving up baseball and TV for that trip? This film went absolutely nowhere; one lame, boring scene after another featuring some little cutesy actor who was unable to keep this dead fish afloat. Bother not.

What I initially thought of as a kiddie flick, I was pleasantly surprised to find 'Wide Awake' so much more (though I should have known better since it was written by the wonderful M. Night 'Sixth Sense' Shymalan).

The story of the film revolves around a little boy named Joshua who seeks to find God in order to ensure his dead grandfather is safe. Ten-year-old Josh is Catholic and an unflinching believer in his faith until the death of his beloved grandfather. Suddenly all Josh has been raised to believe in is thrown into turmoil as he finds his faith seriously called into question. He begins to wonder why God allows so much bad to exist in the world and, more importantly, what happened to his grandfather following his death.

The film is not just a story of faith but also of growing up and realising the world is not a simple place with absolutes, rather things may not always be what they seem. The ending, like 'Sixth Sense' does have a great twist that works so well and will leave even the hard-hearted feeling warm. Joseph Cross, as Josh, and Timothy Reifsnyder, as his best friend Dave, were able to carry the film at a first-rate level despite being so young. Cross portrayed Josh's innocence, his disenchantment with God, his love for his friends and family and the joy at his end revelation with the proficiency of a professional triple his age. His touching performances brought heart to the story. The adult actors in supporting roles, with Dana Delany and Denis Leary as Josh's parents and Rosie O'Donnell as the nun teacher, were decent yet understated as they, quite rightly, let the child actors shine.

One of the best things of this film is that although much of the cast are children, they aren't the typical annoying brats you see tend to encounter in Hollywood films. The storyline isn't sugary either. The interaction of Josh with his friends and adults around him were handled poignancy, especially the flashback scenes with his grandfather that portrayed their strong bond perfectly.

'Wide Awake' does make you wonder if ten-year-olds' can have deeper thoughts and views than adults give them credit for and I think many of us can empathise with how childlike wonder slowly gives way to adult insights as we grow up and leave childhood behind. This isn't a film just for the religious but those who are interested in a realistic depiction of a child's coming-of-age.

The warm-hearted, child-friendly, funny film deals with essential problems and at the same time entertains thanks to the good actors. The second directorial work by M. Night Shyamalan shows already some of his later themes (faith, religion etc.), but the thriller/horror element is missing.

One of the things they never mention in flight school is being trapped in a hotel with crummy cable. Being bored enough to watch terrible films on the premium channel in your room is dangerous to your mental health. If you liked "They Shoot Horses Don't They" or think Kafka is good for few laughs, this will be right up your alley. Otherwise, if you are stuck in a hotel with this film on... go ride up and down in the elevator and listen to the musac.. it's more enjoyable.

Odds are you will probably not make it through the first 3 to 5 minutes. The opening sequence pretty well sets the pace for Rod Serlings coming of age in the twilight zone. This was one of those films, that they make fun of in other films. Remember when on I Love Lucy she wrote her novel, and it was finally published.. in a text book on writing under the chapter "don't let this happen to you"...well... here it is on film. This should be in text books of young film makers... don't let this happen to YOU. My advice, run away, watch the foreign language channel, you might learn something, the PBS auction is more entertaining. BOMBS AWAY !

I came upon this movie purely by accident when it was being shown on cable, and found myself riveted to my seat, not wanting to miss a minute of it. The performance by Joseph Cross was captivating, but what was even more compelling was the story itself. I was constantly trying to figure out how it was going to end.

The ending turned out to be a real surprise, but I was also impressed by the portrayal of boyhood that the audience receives in the process of getting there. It was so true to life that I found myself wondering how much of it was based on the film writer's own experiences. Above all, I was impressed by the amount of respect the movie seems to have for boys, and by its willingness to recognize that 5th graders sometimes think deep thoughts and ask deep questions.

When his grandfather dies, Joshua is left feeling lost and confused. Full of questions he begins to search for God in order to get answers. Turning to priests as well as other religions, Joshua is frustrated by his lack of progress but soon learns more than he thought on his journey.

Like many of those who have recently seen it, I was drawn to this film by the fact that Shyamalan directed it shortly before hitting big with Sixth Sense. The film isn't like his more recent straight-dramas with a twist, so beware what you expect; this is more a human story and, as such, it isn't totally successful. It delivers most of the story quite well, managing to be quite touching without ever really falling into daytime tv sentimentality, however something was lacking I felt. The overall story is worthy enough but that side of it never really touched me as much as I would have hoped and it could have been made more of - especially as the ending is focused on that aspect in particular. Also I needed more feeling for the relationship between Josh and his grandfather - the flashbacks were OK but didn't do enough to convey the depth of Josh's love nor the sheer loss he must feel.

Like he did in Sixth Sense, Shyamalan gets good performances out of his child actors. All the support kids are good but Cross is particularly strong and he does very well carrying the narrative. He really is the lead role and nobody else really gets close in terms of screen time. Given this fact I was surprised how many other famous faces were in small roles - O'Donnell, Leary, Loggia and Lauria; they are all OK but none really has more than a supporting role.

Overall, this film was nice but not great. The plot is an interesting one but it doesn't manage to satisfactorily conclude on all the mysticism and ideas that it puts forward. It is still quite a nice little story if you just look at it as a sort of coming of age story surrounding Joshua, but really it didn't quite go where I hoped it would.

Arguably the most important movie that started all the groundwork for M. Night. Wide Awake is M. Night's proper debut film just one year shy of his masterpiece The Sixth Sense. It's interesting to see all the little things such as child performances and religious themes shaping up here, as well as M. Night's directorial flourishes and sentimental stuff. It's shot pretty well and has some emotion in spades. You can tell how much he grew just from making this film as a director.

All things said, I didn't think this was that good of a film. There isn't much of a push in terms of interesting things happening for most of it and I dunno it felt a bit sappy and insincere in places I guess. The kid's dialogue also seemed a bit unnatural and there were strange attempts of humour/parodies that felt a bit out of place. The ending was certainly something, knowing how much M. Night loves Twist Endings.

4/10.

It's 5th grade at a private all-boys Catholic school in Philadelphia for Joshua A. Beal. He is still dealing with the death of his beloved grandfather (Robert Loggia). There are his parents (Dana Delany, Denis Leary) and his older sister (Julia Stiles). David is his rebellious best friend. Sister Terry (Rosie O'Donnell) and Sister Sophia (Camryn Manheim) are two of his teachers. Joshua has questions about God and goes on a search.

Let's be real. I was intrigue with this because of M. Night Shyamalan before he made Sixth Sense. I've never heard of it. It's a bit slow. There are some good bits but it struggles to build up speed. His search for God needs to be more pronounced and defined. Why not make it his assignment? The assignment could be writing about someone they don't know and he decides that he doesn't know God. Quite frankly, it would be a great Christian movie concept. I do like the rescue, the speech, and finally the twist reveal. It would help if the premise has more narrative drive.

My husband and I thought this was an excellent movie! We watched it with our 2 young daughters and it opened a great deal of doors for discussions with them. The casting was wonderful! I had read in an article that M. Night Shyamalan was kind of disappointed with it over-all, and I think that he should re-consider that thought. He states that he wants people to somehow be touched by and to identify with the work that he produces and this movie does exactly that! It hits home on all different levels for young and old.

This is a must see for families!!

This was the first film written and directed by M. Night Shyalaman, who would go on to make a film called "The Sixth Sense" a few years later. They're not exactly the same genre of movie, but they both have a very similar feel to them, in both dialogue and overall tone & pacing.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch, and worth the rent, if you can dig it out of the children's section at your local video store (it's rated PG). Good performances from all, with maybe only 1 or 2 scenes giving themselves away, something "The Sixth Sense" wasn't guilty of at all.

That said, it's worth something as a milestone, as well... compare the early works of David Fincher or even Ron Howard, and notice how they got better as they went along, making more movies. This movie is a solid B+, with The Sixth Sense being the obvious A. We can only guess what "Unbreakable" may hold for us.

Great actors and writing in this one, regardless. It is very much the story of young Josh and his search for God, and is not at all a Rosie O'Donnell movie as you may have been led to believe. Well worth watching. Denis Leary never looked so nerdy.

While many people believe this movie is not worth the time and use the low grossing as evidence to back that up, I believe it is an excellent coming of age story. It shows us how children deal with death and reminds us that sometimes it takes a tragedy to open our eyes. It may be a little mundane to use a child as the center for a coming of age drama to give the audience a lesson in how to deal with death, but this movie does a really good job of waking us up. I cried and I laughed. Each time I cried it was real and sad, but each time I laughed it was heartfelt and even if for a fraction of a second that laugh made me happy. It is hard to find a quality movie that is able to invoke such an emotional response.

Before I saw this film I knew exactly what I was going to do when I grew up, I had my whole life planned out. I knew what job I was going to have and I didn't think anything could change that, alas, I was wrong. I thought I would always be an author, use my imagination for a career and write books. But ‘Wide Awake', this film has made me realise there are jobs very much like a writer, author, job which can actually make my stories come to life, so they don't have to just be inside somebody's head they can be created with so much realism as in a book as well, as in the wonderful movie which changed the way I see my life in the future, When I was watching that film, it really deepened my look upon movies, it was one of the best films I have ever seen, and although it was not full of action, romance, and that much comical feature (in my opinion) it was a heart-warming very dramatically movie in which portrayed excellent acting, especially from the lovely ‘Joseph Cross' and also such beautiful scenes, so meaningful and heart-warming, to me every scene seemed absolutely perfect, some people may not see the utter deep effect it has and may think it is boring, but that is them, if your only interest is in action flicks with meaningless plots other than to blow up things then this film isn't for you, but for everyone else, everyone who thinks of such a movie as more than just a movie then maybe this film will change your life too, I know it has mine, and I know what I HAVE to be when I grow older and choose what I am going to do for a living, I will be a director. And I am sorry if I have not told you much about the film, but I don't know much more to say other than it is a beautiful emotional journey of one boy (Joseph Cross) who tries to look for god, and some things happen which attack his belief in god, but in the end things happen which save it, many different issues are brought up along the way, but the overall message is passed along very nicely which is in my opinion that we all need something to believe in, and that eventually faith should pay off, I know I believe that I finally have something to believe in, in this lifetime, I will make it as a director, and I know I will make a film one day as meaningful as this, and maybe I will change someone's life too. Maybe one day I will make you laugh, make you cry, make you happy, and make you sad, but I know this I will never forget the film which changed my life ‘Wide Awake', and as one of the dramatic and so meaningful lines goes in the movie, I am ‘Wide Awake' now too.

11 out of 10

Francesca Orr

14 years old

Animal lover

I truly enjoyed this little sleeper of a film. I had never heard of it and fell upon it by chance. It's completely unlike the other films I've seen by M. Night Shyamalan in that it's not caught up in the supernatural or science fiction. I think it really show just what a great film maker he is. Made in 1998 it was just before his big stuff hit the screens. It's just a simple story of a young boy searching for God after his Grandfather dies and in the process finding himself awakening to what's going on in life as well as restoring his faith. A pretty good cast all around, and all basically in supporting roles for the young actor Joseph Cross carries the film. I don't know why it kept such a low profile.

This little movie was a total delight. It had a great story line, was well acted and had a strong message while being poignant and humorous. The story of a 5th grader at an all boys Catholic school on a mission to find God is extremely funny, witty and compelling at the same time. This movie will make you run the gamut of emotions; you'll laugh, cry and at the end be satisfied that yes, there is indeed a God. Joshua's mission includes his discovery of life around him and for the first time he notices the wherefore's and why's of his family, friends and life in general. I found this movie to be very moving, so much so that I bought the DVD and am passing it around to friends and family. I give it my highest recommendation and know anyone who watches it won't be disappointed.

My favorite type of film. Makes you think but doesn't bore. [Almost] makes you want to cry but isn't mushy. Makes you laugh but doesn't try too hard. All in all a good flick. It reminds me very much of "The Cure", which I also enjoyed.