"Wide Awake" is a wonderful family film that deals sensitively, and even with humor, with a fairly unusual situation for the screen: a 9-year-old's struggles with his faith in God.
It conveys just how devastating the death of a beloved grandparent can be on a child, and it depicts Catholic private school life in an affectionate and ultimately positive manner.
"Wide Awake" is a most encouraging second film from M. Night Shyamalan, who at the age of 21 made "Praying With Anger" (1992), a beautiful, accomplished work about a young man, played by Shyamalan, who reluctantly becomes an exchange student in India, the land of his parents' birth, and ends up discovering himself.
As both parents are hard-working physicians, it's not surprising that the key person in the life of Joshua Beal (Joseph Cross) is his widowed maternal grandfather (Robert Loggia), a rugged retiree who lives with the Beals in an impressive Colonial-style stone manor house in suburban Philadelphia. Joshua's grandpa has plenty of time for him, encouraging him in sports and, as a deeply religious man, setting an example for his grandson.
When stricken with fatal bone cancer, Grandpa places his trust in God. But once Grandpa has died, Joshua, as he commences fifth grade, begins to have serious doubts about God's existence and craves a sign that his grandfather is all right and safely ensconced in heaven.
As a writer and a director, Shyamalan does the admirable job of taking Joshua's plight seriously while showing that life goes on and that in its course there will be moments that are still funny, especially since the opposite sex is just beginning to have its impact upon Joshua.
Joshua's parents (Dana Delany, Denis Leary) are busy and seem to have decided to let Joshua work out his spiritual quest for himself. Joshua's best friend Dave (Timothy Reifsnyder) is a flat-out nonbeliever--or so Dave thinks--but Joshua is not to be so easily diverted.
School provides Joshua with more direction. The school's priest forthrightly tells Joshua that doubt goes hand in hand with faith and that believers can always expect to have their faith tested.
The person who connects the most to Joshua's spiritual quest is his religion teacher, Sister Terry, played by Rosie O'Donnell. Sister Terry, who is given to speaking of Jesus going up to bat and facing down the pitcher Judas, is also a world-class listener and, though amused, doesn't make fun of Joshua's attempts to find answers in other religions. Her quiet concern is certainly crucial in keeping Joshua from becoming overly obsessed.
