Restless
Gus Van Sant’s latest is a delicate teenage love story which overcomes some self-conscious quirks to resonate as a gently moving hymn to life. It’s basically a two-hander and boasts another impressive turn from Australia’s Mia Wasikowska and a promising screen debut from Dennis Hopper’s son Henry Hopper, but its emotional strength derives from Van Sant’s sure hand with actors, story and camera.
(...) Hopper is a remote young man called Enoch who spends his spare time crashing funerals or playing Battleships with his (imaginary) best friend, the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot called Hiroshi. Enoch, we discover, lost his parents in a car crash at an early age and has been unable to connect with life since then.
The drama is grounded by the appearance, at a funeral one day, of the beautiful Annabel (Wasikowska) who, despite initial rebuffs, succeeds in breaking through Enoch’s protective armour. He soon discovers that she has cancer and only has three months to live, but they nevertheless decide to embark on a passionate and caring romance, helping each other onto the next stages of their respective paths.
Mike Goodridge, Screen International
Duration: 95 min
Dialogue: English
Age limit: K7
