542 Oakwood in Sacramento is the eventual destination of Ben, the protagonist of "Waking." But it also is a stop along the way in a journey into the Twilight Zone.

There was an interesting fantasy structure to the film that included the imagined scenes between Ben and Nadia. Prior to the concluding scene, they only meet on only one occasion and all of the other encounters are in dreams.

There was an interesting set of characters that included two therapists: Jonathan, Ben's prospective father-in-law, and Dr. Hinton, Ben's mother. As the narrative unfolds, Ben is engaged to be married to Jonathan's daughter Amy.

That is, until Amy discovers Ben's text messages to Nadia on his cell phone. When Amy breaks off the engagement and he is fired by Jonathan, Ben sets off from Los Angeles to Sacramento in search of Nadia while on his bicycle!

The filmmakers failed to explore the fantasy dimension of the film. The plot detail about the dog tags suggested that Ben's service in the army ended the moment when his sergeant urged him to get the tags to the woman of Ben's dreams.

Did Ben die in combat? The film's ending was inclusive and included a too much of a "feel good" approach to a film where Ben's next and final stop was 542 Oakwood in a land where no one is ever the same: the Twilight Zone.

Through most of this movie I was thinking 4-5 stars, but the bizarre latter part of the movie kicked it up to a 6.

Through most of it, the theme seemed to be a guy who didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, either in career or relationship. He had a finacee, but he was always looking over his shoulder wondering whether the real love of his life was out there, and he was letting his true destiny go by the wayside. He meets a girl who fills that role perfectly; he establishes a relationship with her in his dreams, which allows him to completely fulfill his fantasy of the woman of his dreams, because she exists only in his dreams. Attempting to find her in real life, what's left of his life completely unravels. But then, lo and behold, she proves to be real, and he finds her. And they wind up the prototypical couple who've found true love, neither in a position to sustain the responsibilities of a grown up couple, but love will conquer all.

So the ending is that of a classic love story. And that ending is a perfect fit to the dream story that led up to it, but not the real life story. Thus, the story ends in ambiguity. That made it more intriguing to me.

The premise of the story was a good platform, but, as other reviewers have commented, I think a lot more could have been done with it. But I do think there was enough there for it to be worth watching.

... and it is not a romantic movie.

What I got out of this story is a young man who is sinking fast into mental illness and self delusion. Ben cannot define when he is awake from when he is asleep. It happens so much in this movie even the viewer falls into this reality vs. not reality trap.

His fiancé even states he becomes insecure after every decision he makes. His mother is a psychotherapist, his fiancé's father is a psychotherapist and Ben studied to be one. Yet he is his worst patient because he believes that Nadia is real - we the viewer are never really told she is real - maybe his first meeting her was just a dream. When Ben is with Nadia the colors change in the setting.

When Ben finally finds Nadia his real self and his dream self are indecipherable by himself and the viewer. Therefore I believe this movie is more about mental illness than romance.