A couple of morbid romantics populate Gus Van Sant’s ‘Restless’
Restless, director Gus Van Sant’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Milk, is a small film with effective performances by its two leads. It never quite transcends the cliches it so unabashedly embraces, but as a character study in how people deal with grief and loss at a young age, Restless is a beautiful little snapshot of forlorn love.
Henry Hopper (son of the late Dennis Hopper) plays Enoch Brae, a young man who wrestles with the memories of the car accident that left him in a coma and a newly christened orphan. Although forever affected by the loss of his parents, Enoch is also strangely attracted to death and the rituals of saying goodbye. He carries on discussions with Hiroshi Takahashi (Ryo Kase), the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot, and attends funerals to watch the mourners cry their tears.
It’s at one of these memorial services that doe-eyed Enoch stumbles upon equally doe-eyed Annabel Cotton (an exquisite Mia Wasikowska), a young lady similarly engrossed by the morbidity around her. Her reasoning is more evident: Annabel is dying of cancer and only has a few months left to live.
From this simply, albeit contrived, setup, Restless becomes a conversation piece where Enoch and Annabel test each other with flirtatious games and seemingly innocent discussions on various topics. They work their way through a puppy-dog relationship that, with the gloominess hovering overhead, feels more adult and genuine than their ages would let on.
Annabel is very much the livelier of the two. She may have a grim prognosis, but she keeps her spirits high, constantly smiling and offering positive assurances to her caring sister (Schuyler Fisk) and alcoholic mother (Lusia Strus). Enoch, who missed his parents’ burial because he was still in a coma, is unable to accept anything or anyone. He can’t deal with Annabel’s eventual departure or the accident that changed his life. His aunt (an underused Jane Adams) tries to make a home out of the Brae household, but her efforts are met with shrugged shoulders and doors slamming.
Jason Lew, who wrote the screenplay, has a nice way with his characters’ organic humanity. At a basic level, Annabel and Enoch are good people enduring difficult circumstances. The writing trips up when the audience puts aside the dimple-in-cheek niceties and needs to believe that these two characters are real people. Seeing their burgeoning relationship through the lens of montages and song sequences, it’s difficult to grasp any reality. Restless sometimes feel like a commercial, rather than a feature film. Both actors, with their skinny, wan looks and penchant for nature and walking around aimlessly, seem like perfect fits for Levi’s advertisements (or whatever the kids are into nowadays). As living, breathing people facing daunting challenges, it’s a stretch to think that Enoch and Annabel exist outside of the 91 minutes we spend with them.
And the entire kamikaze ghost storyline … well, it comes off as absurd as it sounds.
This is not to say that Van Sant doesn’t try. Shooting in his hometown of Portland, Ore., the director and his crew capture these two characters like a photographer captures a subject. And strung together, these mini portraits add up to much emotion and pleasantness. When the inevitable unfolds (and, yes, the inevitable does unfold), Van Sant and company make the audience feel for these forsaken young adults, mostly because the camera falls in love with them. There is never a scene where you feel Enoch or Annabel have spoken out of turn or displayed a negative quality. Rosy portraits make for sad endings.
Hopper fares well for his big-screen debut. It’s a difficult part, but he plays it with a calm serenity. In a few of the more dramatic scenes, where Enoch needs to register an emotion other than passivity, the young actor begins to crumble a bit. Wasikowska, on the other hand, is skillful from beginning to end. She smacks her lips together, offers a winning smile and lets Annabel come alive, even at a time when she’s coming undone. In a film that is largely mediocre, Wasikowska pulls in a performance that is nuanced and heartbreaking.
Restless is not overly ambitious, and so, along those lines, it succeeds and then some. It’s hard to argue with sentimentality and the pulling of heartstrings.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
