Restless

Gus Van Sant probably understands the minds of youngsters better than any director around and he proves it again in this rhapsodic film about loss and love and loss again. His cast is so well selected that they seem to be an ensemble from a stage company, so well integrated are their relationships in this beautiful film written by Jason Lew.

Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper, son of Dennis Hopper, and a very fine actor) survived a car accident in which his parents were killed: he remained in a coma and missed their funeral and the chance to in some way say goodbye. Living with his Aunt Mabel (Jane Adams), he now spends his days not attending school but instead going to strangers' funerals. One funeral organizer (Christopher D. Harder) notices his repeated appearances and tries to have him arrested for trespassing but he is saved by a strange girl named Annabel (Mia Wasikowska in a brilliant performance). Annabel also attends funerals: she tells Enoch that she works with children with cancer at a hospital. Enoch is wary of making friends - his only ally being a Japanese kamikaze pilot ghost Hiroshi Takahashi (Ryo Kase) with whom he talks about everything. But gradually Enoch and Annabel bond and Annabel reveals to Enoch that she doesn't work with 'cancer kids', she is one - she has brain cancer and is on short-term time. Annabel's sister Elizabeth (Schyler Fisk) and mother Rachel (Luisa Strus) accept Enoch's growing supportive love for Annabel. As Enoch grows form his experience with Annabel he no longer needs the presence of his ghost or his need for attending funerals and instead spends his time giving Annabel the best three months (remaining) of her life. How the story draws to an end is so enchanting that to share it would deprive the viewer of the magic of this film.

This is one of those perfect little films that glow in the heart. Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper create such memorable characters that once seen they will never be forgotten. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

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.

Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper) is a morbid teenager that enjoys attending funerals. He meets the teenager Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) in a memorial service and they start to see each other. Enoch has lost his parents in a car accident and lives with his aunt Mabel (Jane Adams). His best and only friend is the ghost of the Japanese kamikaze pilot Hiroshi Takahashi (Ryo Kase) and Enoch neither goes to school nor has a car. Annabel is terminal with brain tumor and lives with her sister Elizabeth (Schuyler Fisk) and her mother Rachel (Lusia Strus). She loves to read about birds, especially the water birds. Soon the unlikely couple falls in love with each other improving their lives.

"Restless" is a beautiful, romantic and sad movie about love, life and death. Enoch Brae recalls Harold, from "Harold and Maude", a teenager with a trauma attracted by memorial services. Mia Wasikowska is wonderful in the role of the sweet Annabel, a teenager terminally ill that loves life. The story is sensitive and their romance is heartbreaking. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Inquietos" ("Restless")

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."

I don't know about you, but as great as Dennis Hopper was, I was never able to love him. He was so mean and frightening – all those horrid things he put poor Keanu and Sandra through on that bus, the sacrifices that Jack had to make to get him in 24 and that frankly frightful tongue in Super Mario Bros. But, finally, from his loins, comes something I can love – wee little Henry.

He seems to be carved from the finest tree in the Gus Van Sant forest of indie-actors, whilst having a face perfect enough for the inevitable actor-cum-model turn for the odd glossy magazine.

Death, cancer and all that stuff is hard enough to deal with when you're an adult, but when you're abandoned by your parents to make sense of this world and all its harshness, there's really only one place to go and that's off the rails. Finding yet more death in his imaginary friend and his new girlfriend, young Enoch is just a little bit dark and kooky.

And talking of his girlfriend, is there nothing that Mia Wasikowska isn't in these days. Six months ago it was Amy Ryan who seemed to be in every movie in the cinema, film on iTunes and series on TV; but for the past couple of months Mia has been everywhere. I just caught, and fell in love with, her in In Treatment; and here, well she continued to win me over.

I love a film about grief – and this one is beautiful, cute, and has that little Romeo and Juliet vibe. And a little note to the film's stylist – loving your work.