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MOVIES / ON DVD / WAKE
Wake

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Wake (2004)

27%
25%
N/A
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27 %
Reviews Counted: 11 Fresh: 3  Rotten:8 Average Rating: 3.8/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Synopsis: Alone in his family’s decaying, long-deserted homestead, Sebastian (Martin Landau), confronts the blank page, a writer struggling to tell a tale. “...Each room, every hallway harbors the same shadows as when my brothers and I were young. And in each and every shadow, the same unchanging... Alone in his family’s decaying, long-deserted homestead, Sebastian (Martin Landau), confronts the blank page, a writer struggling to tell a tale. “...Each room, every hallway harbors the same shadows as when my brothers and I were young. And in each and every shadow, the same unchanging deceptions...” Is what we are experiencing what really happened? Does it exist only in Sebastian’s memory, or is it a fiction? In the film, “WAKE”, the fateful reunion of four brothers quickly dissolves into a night of drinking, deceit, perversions, and death. They don’t realize until it is too late that the party they are having is, in fact, a wake. The writing and directorial debut of Henry LeRoy Finch, “WAKE” is a performance vehicle in the literary spirit of the great American playwrights; O’Neill, Albee, and Shepard. Shot entirely on location in and around Bath, Maine in a house that was originally built in 1745, the film has a visual authenticity that is palpable. “WAKE” presents powerful performances captured with innovative technology. The gifted cast includes: Gale Harold (”Queer as Folk”) as Kyle, Blake Gibbons (“Hollywood Homicide”) as Raymond, Dihlon McManne (“Prospect”) as Sebastian, John Winthrop Philbrick (“Stephen King’s The Langoliers”) as Jack, Rainer Judd (“Reunion”) as Dusty, newcomer Dusty Paik as April, and Oscar-winner Martin Landau (“Crimes and Misdemeanors”), (“Ed Wood”) as Older Sebastian. Nic Harcourt, musical director of National Public Radio station KCRW and host of the internationally acclaimed show “Morning Becomes Eclectic” has brought his invaluable expertise and talent to bear on the project as music supervisor. Chris Anderson has composed the score with Henry LeRoy Finch. Three-time Grammy-nominated sound engineer/record producer Joe DiGiorgi has mixed the film. Included in the film’s varied and moving score are original songs written and performed by up and coming American folksinger/songwriter Ramsay Midwood. “Wake” is written and directed by Henry LeRoy Finch and produced by Susan Landau Finch. Executive producers are Michael C. Donaldson and Margaret Rockwell. Patrick Kelly is the director of photography, Gus Carpenter edited the film, Eric Matheson is the production designer and Szuszana Megyesi served as costume designer. Matthew Clark’s multiple roles as ”artist in residence“ include art director, stills photographer/videographer, titles and graphic designer. wildwell films is committed to commercially viable, maverick projects with “A” level cast and scripts of exceptional literary quality. Through the cultivation of cutting edge concepts, Wildwell Films is dedicated to producing movies with a fiercely independent flair. -- © Wildwell Films [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Gale Harold, Blake Gibbons, Dihlon McManne, John Winthrop Philbrick, Rainer Judd

Director: Henry LeRoy Finch
Screenwriter: Henry LeRoy Finch
Producer: Michael Donaldson
Composer: Chris Anderson

Reviews

 
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1 - 12 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
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Strong thesping and solid staging, atmospherically accompanied by disorienting, darkly folksy Ramsay Midwood songs make Wake surprisingly watchable.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/04/05
Ronnie Scheib
Variety
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Ratings Image
N/A

Feels like a stagy adaptation of an already contrived play.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/04
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
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2/5

A sour piece of work without a stitch of humor, taking itself too seriously... dramatic aspirations dead on arrival.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/29/04
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals
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3/5

Each brother fulfills a different purpose in the plot, and because they don’t allow you to get too emotionally close, they’re not as predictable. They’re more real.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/29/04
Stina Chyn
Film Threat
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3/5

If you're already asking, 'Why don't these alcoholic losers just stop picking at their mental scabs and grow up?' this is not the movie for you.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/28/04
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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1/4

Strictly straight-to-video fodder.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/28/04
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
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1/4

A self-conscious exercise in indie-minded pretension.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/28/04
New York Daily News
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2/5

A hackneyed gothic tale invoking those traditional American family values of secrets and lies, the film fails to transcend its derivative literary aspirations.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/27/04
Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
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1/5

Roy Finch's shrill, derivative independent film is largely a one-set affair that seems to have been transplanted from its natural home somewhere Off-Off-Off Broadway.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/27/04
Dave Kehr
New York Times
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
05/27/04
Onion AV Club
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N/A

As maddening as this clan is, one feels sympathy for the ensemble, which, absent full-bodied characters to inhabit, mug furiously, as if big gestures conjure big themes.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/26/04
Chuck Wilson
L.A. Weekly
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N/A

Fraught with sophomoric lost-innocence metaphors and schematic oedipal tensions.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/25/04
Ben Kenigsberg
Village Voice
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