Restless
Director: Gus Van Sant
Year Released: 2011
Rating: 2.0
Oh boy, wait for this set-up: a lad (Henry Hopper, son of the late, great Dennis H.) who lost his parents to a car crash has developed a fascination with funerals and has lively conversations with the spectre of a Japanese kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase) falls for a dying young lady (Mia Wasikowska) who is obsessed with her own eventual demise. Plays slightly less maudlin than it sounds - like an indie Dying Young - with the characters' idiosyncrasies making it more playful and less dour - Hopper and Wasikowska having some chemistry together helps a lot, too. The scene where the couple 'breaks up' - over a disagreement with some death play they were enacting - doesn't ring true, and Hopper has a little ways to go before he can properly channel inner rage and torment convincingly.
