I watched The Awakening because the description sounded intriguing: a woman in the early twentieth century investigates and debunks supernatural phenomenon in England. Yes, please! When I started watching The Awakening, I was further delighted because it stars Rebecca Hall, whom I really enjoyed in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I really dug her character. She is self-sufficient, knowledgeable, unflappable, but still vulnerable enough to be hurt by and relate to people lashing out who would rather be ripped off than have no hope. The Awakening would make an excellent tv series on the CW, but as a movie, it does not work and was ultimately disappointing. If you watch The Awakening, perhaps stop watching it when one of the main actors from The Wire appears.
The Awakening suffers from a common movie problem: strong on atmosphere (trauma post WWI), but unwilling to tell one story well before becoming the Martryoshka doll of stories. The premise is that she is investigating the death of a boy at a boarding school. The deeper story is that she will learn more about herself and her past than she ever expected. Unfortunately The Awakening feels less like fate and more cinematically contrived.
The Awakening does such a great job of making a genius heroine in the vein of Sherlock Holmes. When the movie switches gears, I got angry. She constantly needed to be rescued or seemed to be going mad. I don’t want to give away the big reveal, which is somewhat surprising, but not entirely if you saw The Others or The Sixth Sense. It is understandable that our heroine would act strangely considering what she is AWAKENING to (GET IT), but the way that she loses it seems inconsistent with her character. By the end, you may incorrectly conclude what happened to her character. That incorrect conclusion is the fault of the filmmakers for relying more on its cinematic antecedents than making a strong story consistent with its main character.
The Awakening is more in love with its theme of seeing what you need to see when you need to see it than making a strong story. The Awakening wants to have its cake and eat it too, and the ending is emblematic of that greedy mistake. The Awakening wants to simultaneously debunk and embrace the supernatural. The Awakening wants to victimize and praise the main character. The Awakening is neither hot, nor cold, but a lukewarm mess that you should spew out of your queue.