User reviews

....and your time.

Svader's "Wake Me Up" synopsis captures it in a nutshell and is to the point.

It's not a terrible or horrible movie. But it's slow and it doesn't build up. The actors certainly are able to convey the emotional torture of their characters. There is tension between the characters, mostly between the main character played by Helene Joy and her stepson. He's so melancholy. There must have been someting going on between them at some point, but I'll never know because we couldn't take it any longer and stopped watching 20-30 minutes in. This is a rarity for me. Really, the only thing going for it is the cinematography. The script, what script?, there's hardly any dialogue. It's one thing to be able to convey emotion without speaking, but to do it for literally 90% of the movie, or at least the part of the movie we stuck with. I feel bad writing this review. I can't fault the actors. I don't want to fault the writer and director. My breaking point was the music. It was just so melancholy and full of dread. Well, the real breaking point was the music AND the mumbling of an unknown woman's voice as the scene changes from the main female character to that of the stepson's girlfriend, who in the description of the movie, is the one she becomes obsessed with, yet it seems she's more concerned with the 30 something year old stepson. I really wish I could say something more positive about the movie.

"Written AND directed by" is always a warning shot for me. This turgid disaster is comprised of close up face shot, being in a car, close up face shot, close up face shot, being in a car, close up face shot, miserable people, close up face shot...

I made it halfway through and said enough was enough.

Incredibly slow and incredibly boring.

The sound is terrible and all you hear is mumbling.

Stor to is lame and you have no care or feeling toward any characters.

A former athlete has regrets and develops a mid-life crisis when her step son returns for a visit with his girlfriend. Main character is uninteresting and I developed no sympathy for her. I wished woman in car drove into a wall 5 minutes into the movie so I can get my 1 hour and 45 minutes back. Recommended for insomniacs. This movie would put you to sleep.

The movie is not bad at all. It just needed a longer ending. Why some filmmakers really don't understand? Such a film should be at least two and a half hours long. See the films of the history of Japanese cinema.

I actually really enjoyed this film. I don't watch a lot of films, and rarely watch one in one sitting, but this held my attention the entire time. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I watched it twice.

I can understand why it might not be everyone's cup of tea (as indicated by the other reviews), but I thought it was beautifully shot, and the acting was brilliant. In particular, I enjoyed Hélène Joy's performance who masterfully portrayed so much emotion, at times without uttering a word - a true testament to her skill as an actor.