Inquietos

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."

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.

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.

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.

Restless tells the story of two controversial -but somehow the same- teenage characters and their perspectives of dealing with death. Enoch (Henry Hopper) has dropped out school and tries to cope and face his fears by attending funerals. That's how he meets Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), a girl with a terminal disease and a love for life and nature. There's also the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), from WWII and it seems that he is a story inside the story of this film. Sometimes you may think that his part is unnecessary in the plot, although, in the end it turns out that he wasn't so much irrelevant after all.

The film is not as morbid as you might think. There won't be any moment where your heart will feel heavy. Every scene is a walk-through towards realization and the art of getting familiar with the absolute fact such as death and the importance of love and the "now" moment.

The photography is soft and atmospheric and so is the music. Keep in mind that the director (Gus Van Sant) is the one who also directed Good Will Hunting, a brilliant movie. I first saw Mia Wasikowska in Alice in Wonderland, then in Jane Eyre and i believe she's one of the many talented young actresses that'll stand out in the industry. Henry Hopper on the other hand is the son of the late -and great- Dennis Hopper. His filmography is still in its early stages but he seems very promising.