This film almost gets there but it sags too much in the middle which kills the momentum of a good idea. The kind of high concept good idea that nearly everyone can identify with on some level. If you’ve ever been awake so long you become too tired to sleep, this flick might be talking directly to you. At points, it certainly was to me.

Something happens to the world… something knocks out both our technology and our ability to sleep. Without sleep, people start to lose focus and eventually their minds. Gina Rodriguez plays a mom who has to protect her children in this new world… only to discover that her daughter is one of the few people who can sleep.

The opening act of the film is pretty good, though oddly I found their introduction to the fact nobody can sleep wasn’t communicated very well. I was so focused on the loss of technology that I must have missed the sleep part and that’s a problem (but, hey, maybe it was just me).

This leads to some early scenes of paranoia and chaos as people grow paranoid and turn to irrational solutions to their problems. But that, in turn, leads to a middle act where the movie just fizzles. It loses all focus and ceases to be engrossing or interesting. It no longer has anything interesting to say or show and just is kind of a generic post-disaster thriller.

Thankfully the final act is pretty strong, even though the solution to the problem was so immensely obvious, that too hurt the film. When the audience is smarter than the dummies in the movie, it gets annoying to watch the film.

So yeah, this is an uneven film that tries to visually represent the idea of exhaustion on a global scale but on a limited budget. It does a little too much wheel spinning between a good start and a better ending. It’s not a disaster but it surely buts up against one.

Score: 74