Review: The Awakening (2011)

The Awakening

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Ghost

Another Netflix title, and another movie that wasn't too bad. Really, when I go to the cinema to watch a horror movie they're almost always shit but the last couple I watched on Netflix were all quite good. The ghost genre isn't really my favorite one to watch, but coincidently I watched a shit load the last couple of days. I didn't really intend to, but well... it happened, so expect a lot more ghost movie reviews the next couple of days. 

So, let's talk about The Awakening! I wasn't really sure what I expected from this movie. I never watched a trailer (not watching trailers is the best protection against high expectations I think) so well, I had no idea what this movie was about. I only read the three sentenced description on Netflix but that still didn't tell me a whole lot about what to expect.

In 1921, England is overwhelmed by the loss and grief of World War I. Hoax exposer Florence Cathcart visits a boarding school to explain sightings of a child ghost. Everything she believes unravels as the 'missing' begin to show themselves. 

What I found very remarkable at the beginning of this movie was how they pictured Rebecca's Hall character. The movie is set in the 1920's and we have a sort of vision about woman from that time, they're often housewives who are neatly dressed and stuff. But this was absolutely not how Rebecca's Hall character was pictured, you immediately saw that she was a strong independent woman. This was most noticable in her clothes, every woman in the movie wore dresses or skirts while she often wore pants. Perhaps a great misinterpretation on my side, but I thought it was notable.

I thought Rebecca Hall was a great choice by the way for the role of Florence Cathcart, I think she's a very cool actress and her roles are always remarkable. The strong woman part that I describer earlier also fitted greatly with her I thought. Dominic West did a good, but not outstanding, job as portraying Robert Mallory. I was a bit weirded out about seeing Imelda Staunton playing a nice role, since I obviously only know her in a role as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movie, where she isn't very kind. Obviously, she did a great job playing in this movie as well as in Harry Potter. Another fun face to see was the young Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran Stark in Game of Thrones. He was very adorable in this movie, I think he's quite a good actor. I'm hoping to see more of him in the future. 

The movie itself is quite standard. Finding the ghost that terrorizes people with someone who doesn't believe in ghosts. Only to find out eventually that she was wrong all the time, because there obviously is a ghost. Some parts are a bit far-fetched in this movie. The end conclusion for example, WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD, I can't imagine that no one else but Maud caught her talking to the little boy. The last scene was a bit weird. I think they wanted to give the impression that she was dead, while they also wanted you to think that she was still alive. They didn't really do this in a very smart way, because it wasn't mysterious at all, and in the end you still know which one it is. 

It isn't a very original movie, but it is a fun movie to watch. It's not filled with plot holes, which is always a nice thing, and the acting is quite good. There aren't really scares in this movie, especially because the ghost has a blurry face. It's not a very scary face. The Awakening is a fun movie, nothing special, but nothing bad either. I say that a lot about the last few Netflix films I watched, I know, but it's just the way it is. I wasn't bored while watching it, although I wasn't impressed with it either. 

My personal rate: 6,5/10