''Wake'' is a 2003 American drama film directed by Henry LeRoy Finch, starring

Gale Harold Gale Morgan Harold III (born July 10, 1969) is an American actor, known for his leading and recurring roles on '' Queer as Folk'', '' Deadwood'', ''Desperate Housewives'', ''Grey's Anatomy'', ''The Secret Circle'' and '' Defiance''. He also starre ...

, Dihlon McManne,

Blake Gibbons Blake Gibbons (born June 21, 1961) is an American actor best known for his recurring role as Coleman (GH), Coleman on the long running Daytime television serial ''General Hospital''. He also played "The Dude" (Lyle) in The Summer of George episo ...

and John Winthrop Philbrick.

Cast

as Kyle Riven * Dihlon McManne as Sebastien Riven ** Martin Landau as Older Sebastien Riven *

as Raymond Riven * John Winthrop Philbrick as Jack Riven * Muriel Kenderdine as Mother * Dusty Paik as April * Rainer Judd as Dusty

Release

The film opened on 28 May 2004.

Reception

Maitland McDonagh Maitland McDonagh () is an American film critic and the author of several books about cinema. She is the author of ''Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento'' (1991) and works of erotic fiction and erotic cinema, as well a ...

of the ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' rated the film 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Its assets include uniformly strong performances; Gibbons and Harold revel in the showy roles, and get strong support from McManne and Philbrick. Even Paik and Judd invest their one-note roles with surprising vividness. Shooting on digital video, cinematographer Patrick Kelly delivers a vibrantly smeary look that evokes alternately sordid and surreally beautiful flashes of poisonously intoxicated memory." Ronnie Scheib of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that "Strong thesping and solid staging, atmospherically accompanied by disorienting, darkly folksy Ramsay Midwood songs make “Wake” surprisingly watchable for a film whose whole raison d’etre appears to be something of a mystery." Noel Murray of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' wrote that the film "looks great and sounds great—apart from what the people in it do and say."

Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote that the film was "instantly forgettable". Chuck Wilson of ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'' wrote that "one feels sympathy for the ensemble, which, absent full-bodied characters to inhabit, mug furiously, as if big gestures conjure big themes." Ben Kenigsberg of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' wrote a negative review of the film.

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, wake, Wake American drama films 2004 drama films 2004 films