Restless - Dir. by Gus Van Sant
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Two reviews. Another case of "Did they see the same film?".
Restless
12 May, 2011 | By Mike Goodridge
Screendaily
Dir/scr: Gus Van Sant. US. 2011. 95mins
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.
Sony financed the film and has worldwide distribution rights but, for all its pedigree, it’s a small, polished gem more at home in the arthouse than the multiplex. Its photogenic teen stars won’t guarantee teen audiences, but with careful handling, it could develop a following among older teens and upscale adults. The film opened Un Certain Regard and Sony Pictures Classics will release it in North America in September.
The film opens with all the kooks and mannerisms of a Wes Anderson movie. Hopper is a remote young man called Enoch Brae who spends his spare time crashing funerals or playing Battleships with his (imaginary) best friend, the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot called Hiroshi (Kase). 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 Cotton (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.
Jane Adams plays Enoch’s aunt who moved from Seattle to Portland to raise him after his parents’ death, while Schuyler Fisk is Annabel’s older sister.
Jason Lew’s screenplay generally steers clear of the maudlin, and ends on an upbeat note, in spite of the inevitable fate that befalls Annabel. Wasikowska, the busy young actress whose credits include Jane Eyre and Alice In Wonderland, anchors the film with another charismatic performance, heartbreakingly natural as she patiently tackles both illness and Enoch’s foibles. Hopper, who makes his professional acting debut here, is less convincing in a difficult role but has enough presence to hold his own against her.
Set in a wintry Portland, Oregon, Restless has a similar combination of eccentricity, melancholy and profundity to Van Sant’s 20 year-old My Own Private Idaho and, although it’s less memorable than that film, acts as a valuable reminder of the director’s sensitive touch and eclecticism.
Lead producer on the film is actress Bryce Dallas Howard who attended New York University with writer Lew and encouraged him to turn short plays on these characters into a screenplay.
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Restless: Cannes Review
by Todd McCarthy
Hollywood Reporter
“Seen any good funerals lately?” asks one funeral junky to another in Restless, a terminally cloying and mushy-headed romance between a cancer-stricken young woman and an orphaned teenager whose closest confidant is the ghost of a kamikazi pilot. The most banal and indulgent of Gus Van Sant’s periodic studies of troubled kids, this agonizingly treacly tale comes off like an indie version of Love Story except with worse music. Gullible teen girls represent the target audience for this Sony Pictures Classics release, as most people of voting age will blanch at such a cutesy depiction of adolescent angst.
Both dressed in fashionably funky style, Enoch (Henry Hopper) and Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) meet at a funeral and bond over their mutual morbid obsession, which they have for opposite reasons: Enoch lost his mother and father in an automobile accident which, he claims, left him dead for three minutes before he bounced back, while Annabel has brain cancer which will take her within a few months.
Fascinated by animals and the natural order of things, Annabel idolizes Charles Darwin and puts on a madly positive, enthusiastic front, knowing she needs to experience whatever she can of life in a very short time. She can therefore be excused for being a bit pushy with Enoch, who has basically shut down after his parents died and is difficult to bring out of his shell.
Enoch seems content, in fact, to converse mostly with his buddy Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), a ghost who dresses in the uniform of Japanese World War II suicide pilots and also discusses the details of the seppuku ritual with the death-obsessed young American.
Still, the flesh-and-blood Annabel finally manages to exert a greater influence on Enoch, when, after a date at the morgue and being chased by cretins on Halloween, they evolve from confidants to lovers in a mild encounter that possess a surprisingly weak charge.
Van Sant can be good at creating private worlds inhabited by sensitive and/or disturbed characters, but here the individuals are simply not very interesting. The project started as a group of short plays and vignettes by NYU student Jason Lew, a fellow classmate of co-producer Bryce Dallas Howard who subsequently worked them into a play and, ultimately, a script. It still feels sketchy, however, neither deeply developed nor very nuanced.
With her Mia Farrow haircut and winsome air, Wasikowska is a welcome presence as always, but one wishes she had more levels to play than brave and resolutely upbeat. In his film debut, Hopper, the son of Dennis Hopper, is toussel-haired and cute but struggles to bring dimension and nuance to Enoch’s balkiness.
Shot by Harris Savides in the Portland area, Restless has a rather washed-out look, especially in the darker interiors. Danny Elfman’s score is uncharacteristically sappy, emphasizing all that’s most annoying in the material.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1305209763
Restless
12 May, 2011 | By Mike Goodridge
Screendaily
Dir/scr: Gus Van Sant. US. 2011. 95mins
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.
Sony financed the film and has worldwide distribution rights but, for all its pedigree, it’s a small, polished gem more at home in the arthouse than the multiplex. Its photogenic teen stars won’t guarantee teen audiences, but with careful handling, it could develop a following among older teens and upscale adults. The film opened Un Certain Regard and Sony Pictures Classics will release it in North America in September.
The film opens with all the kooks and mannerisms of a Wes Anderson movie. Hopper is a remote young man called Enoch Brae who spends his spare time crashing funerals or playing Battleships with his (imaginary) best friend, the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot called Hiroshi (Kase). 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 Cotton (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.
Jane Adams plays Enoch’s aunt who moved from Seattle to Portland to raise him after his parents’ death, while Schuyler Fisk is Annabel’s older sister.
Jason Lew’s screenplay generally steers clear of the maudlin, and ends on an upbeat note, in spite of the inevitable fate that befalls Annabel. Wasikowska, the busy young actress whose credits include Jane Eyre and Alice In Wonderland, anchors the film with another charismatic performance, heartbreakingly natural as she patiently tackles both illness and Enoch’s foibles. Hopper, who makes his professional acting debut here, is less convincing in a difficult role but has enough presence to hold his own against her.
Set in a wintry Portland, Oregon, Restless has a similar combination of eccentricity, melancholy and profundity to Van Sant’s 20 year-old My Own Private Idaho and, although it’s less memorable than that film, acts as a valuable reminder of the director’s sensitive touch and eclecticism.
Lead producer on the film is actress Bryce Dallas Howard who attended New York University with writer Lew and encouraged him to turn short plays on these characters into a screenplay.
-------------------------------------
Restless: Cannes Review
by Todd McCarthy
Hollywood Reporter
“Seen any good funerals lately?” asks one funeral junky to another in Restless, a terminally cloying and mushy-headed romance between a cancer-stricken young woman and an orphaned teenager whose closest confidant is the ghost of a kamikazi pilot. The most banal and indulgent of Gus Van Sant’s periodic studies of troubled kids, this agonizingly treacly tale comes off like an indie version of Love Story except with worse music. Gullible teen girls represent the target audience for this Sony Pictures Classics release, as most people of voting age will blanch at such a cutesy depiction of adolescent angst.
Both dressed in fashionably funky style, Enoch (Henry Hopper) and Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) meet at a funeral and bond over their mutual morbid obsession, which they have for opposite reasons: Enoch lost his mother and father in an automobile accident which, he claims, left him dead for three minutes before he bounced back, while Annabel has brain cancer which will take her within a few months.
Fascinated by animals and the natural order of things, Annabel idolizes Charles Darwin and puts on a madly positive, enthusiastic front, knowing she needs to experience whatever she can of life in a very short time. She can therefore be excused for being a bit pushy with Enoch, who has basically shut down after his parents died and is difficult to bring out of his shell.
Enoch seems content, in fact, to converse mostly with his buddy Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), a ghost who dresses in the uniform of Japanese World War II suicide pilots and also discusses the details of the seppuku ritual with the death-obsessed young American.
Still, the flesh-and-blood Annabel finally manages to exert a greater influence on Enoch, when, after a date at the morgue and being chased by cretins on Halloween, they evolve from confidants to lovers in a mild encounter that possess a surprisingly weak charge.
Van Sant can be good at creating private worlds inhabited by sensitive and/or disturbed characters, but here the individuals are simply not very interesting. The project started as a group of short plays and vignettes by NYU student Jason Lew, a fellow classmate of co-producer Bryce Dallas Howard who subsequently worked them into a play and, ultimately, a script. It still feels sketchy, however, neither deeply developed nor very nuanced.
With her Mia Farrow haircut and winsome air, Wasikowska is a welcome presence as always, but one wishes she had more levels to play than brave and resolutely upbeat. In his film debut, Hopper, the son of Dennis Hopper, is toussel-haired and cute but struggles to bring dimension and nuance to Enoch’s balkiness.
Shot by Harris Savides in the Portland area, Restless has a rather washed-out look, especially in the darker interiors. Danny Elfman’s score is uncharacteristically sappy, emphasizing all that’s most annoying in the material.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1305209763
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler