Restless - Nur mit Dir

The type of film my good friend the Professor calls a "necromance". A touching, but never sentimental little love story produced by, among others, Ron Howard and his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard, "Restless" is beautifully costumed, designed and photographed (Harris Savides), and gently, expertly steered by Gus Van Sant. Set in Portland - which feels like a character in this film. Nice score by Danny Elfman too.

Love and loss loom large in the story of Enoch Brae (Henry - son of Dennis - Hopper), a lonely teenager haunted not only by the death of his parents in a car crash, but also that they were buried while he was in a coma. So he never had closure. He lives with Mabel (Jane Adams: his bedraggled but caring Aunt who bemoans the fact that Enoch calls him Mabel rather than Auntie) and no longer attends school after being expelled for beating up someone who dissed his deceased parents. So he spends his days attending the funerals of strangers and chatting with his imaginary friend Hiroshi (Ryo Kase) - the ghost of a WWII Kamikaze pilot.

One day he meets a beautiful, free spirited young girl named Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) at a funeral. She loves birds and the great outdoors, the two become friends and fall in love while sharing their secrets. Annebel, however, is dying of cancer and has only a few short months to live.

"Restless" probably won't work for everyone, but it charmed and moved me and it it is still floating gently around in my head a week after watching it. Jane Adams' straggly hairstyle is worth the price of admission alone, and the marvelous Mia Wasikowska (whose wonderful offbeat outfits are a credit to Oscar nominated costume designer Danny Glicker) is terrific as Annabel. Ms Wasikowska is rapidly becoming one of my favorite young actresses.

Ron Howard is one of the most successful mainstream directors in America and the lovely Bryce Dallas Howard is, after appearing with distinction in "Hereafter", " 50/50" and the box office hits "The Help" and "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" - a successful young actress on the cusp of major stardom, yet they find the time to make a small, relatively low budget ($8 million) non commercial film like this happen. Kudos to them.

Director Gus Van Sant is renowned for films that explore the lives of lost or outcast characters, and reveal their strength and beauty. And his latest film Restless is no exception.

The film tells the story of two free-spirited teenagers - Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) and Enoch (Henry Hopper). Annabel is suffering a terminal illness, whilst Enoch splits his time between attending stranger's funerals and talking to the ghost of a kamikaze pilot named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase). As they fall for each other, it becomes clear that they are exactly what each other needs, and their lives revolve around making the most of each moment together.

Based on this summary you could be excused for thinking that Restless might be too melancholy. But I think it is more a celebration of life. Don't get me wrong, the film certainly does tug at the heart-strings, but there is an appreciation and acceptance of the fleeting nature of life that overwhelms the sadness.

Van Sant has created a beautiful film with vivid images and masterful direction. It's also quite quirky due to its interesting characters, script and film score. The performances are very good (especially from Wasikowska) which I think add to the strong emotions elicited in the audience. Annabel's zest for life is especially inspirational.

In this sense Restless is so much more than a love story. It certainly makes you appreciate life and loved ones, and this is what I really liked about the film.

A Febiofest screening, nothing signposts that 3 years after multi-Ocsar nominated (including 2 wins) MILK (2008), Gus Van Sant will cook such a cancer-ridden romantic flick grappling with a soul-healing recovery of a parents-bereaved boy after his short relationship with a dying girl although death has been a persistent topic all through his omnibus.

The over-simplified structure may impede Gus from a more spacious platform to perform his mastery, and precipitating an out-and-out snub from all sorts of awards consideration and the disastrous box-office turnover is fatal to destroy its investor's confidence, a total domestic grosses of $164,000 versus its $8 million production budget, which is a far cry not only from MILK, but also much lesser than its indie-alike PARANOID PARK ($490,000), signals that only Van Sant's loyal zealots showed their precious appearances in the cinema. Although smaller the scale, the film still holds steady its stunning visual mode, with bountiful layers of spiritual remedies to cure any scarred heart.

Plot-wise, there are nothing really popped-out, only the Japanese ghost-friend deployment has its exquisite enchantment and exotic luster, but is far from sheer original, which also coincides the film's suffering from the paucity of a one-of-a-kind uniqueness once one can notice among Van Sant's better works (say, ELEPHANT 2003, GOOD WILL HUNTING 1997, and MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO 1991), the story tends to be more lachrymose while marching on the unavoidable finale.

The two leads are basically serviceable, the tenderfoot Henry Hopper, who had just lost his father Dennis Hopper (1936-2010), is inappropriately in time for the role, handsome boys are never amiss in Van Sant's work. By contrast, a burgeoning Mia Wasikowska is the main magnetism on-screen, a product only cannot be stemmed from fiction as it's too ideal to be real.

Personally the film pleased me in a gently soothing method, but it is Van Sant in its very comfort zone without challenging too much of himself.

This underrated film was released just before Christmas in Tokyo. As a long time fun of the director, I enjoyed very much this beautiful film. It appears to be an ordinary boy-meets-girl story with somewhat quirky atmosphere, but inside I found the film is filled with homage to the Nouvellevague cinema.

Among them, I remember the film "Cleo de 5 a 7" by Agnes Varda (1962), which includes discussions of mortality, despair and the meaning of life. I also felt the airs of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. If you love the French films in 60s, I believe you will enjoy and appreciate it more.

The line by Hiroshi (the Ghost) summarizes the theme of this film.

"We have so little time to say any of the things we mean. We have so little time for any of it."

It is pleasant to watch movies in which sad and tragic events are not depicted in a depressive and gray manner, and the characters are able to enjoy the current day. Restless is one of those movies, and despite the sad background, the viewers can follow different undertakings of the lead characters, their joys, worries and moods. The ending scene is settled in an interesting way as well.

Henry Hopper as Enoch Brae and Mia Wasikowska as Annabel Cotton are good and credible; both of them could be used more in non-mainstream movies. Hiroshi Takahashi (Ryō Kase) is an interesting finding, providing additional dimension to this otherwise linear movie.

The movie is definitely for you if you are not ultra-conservative and/or have fresh respective experiences. You have a possibility to enjoy something different and ponder whether your own life is as bad as it may often seem...