Young people can be terribly awkward. Not quite grown into their own skins, they’re sometimes as uncomfortable with themselves as they are with life and their place in it. That doesn’t mean, however, that a movie about them should be. Gus Van Sant’s latest, “Restless,” is too wrapped up in its protagonist’s self-absorption to provide much satisfaction to the viewer. It might be a meta-commentary on the characters — but it feels far too earnest for that.
Strange to say about a film made by the same man responsible for “Milk,” but “Restless” seems awfully close to a vanity project. It’s adapted by Jason Lew from his play; the writer met Bryce Dallas Howard at New York University, and she (along with heavyweight dad Ron and his producing partner Brian Glazer) brought the story to the big screen. One of its two stars is Henry Hopper, son of the late Dennis and an actor with next to no credits to his name.
| On screen |
| ‘Restless’ |
| 2.5 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper |
| Director: Gus Van Sant |
| Rated: PG-13 for thematic elements and brief sensuality |
| Running time: 91 minutes |
Hopper plays Enoch, a young man so obsessed with death he crashes funerals and memorial services. At one of them, he meets Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), a young woman dying of terminal cancer. She sees through him immediately. But she’s not angry he’s shown up at the funeral of a stranger; she’s intrigued by it. It turns out Enoch’s parents died in an accident, and this is his way of dealing with it. When he learns Annabel only has a few months left on this Earth, the boy who can’t come to terms with death offers to help the dying girl get ready for her own.
Annabel doesn’t look very sickly. Played by Wasikowska, she’s calm, radiant and handling her fate better than her family is. She has a thing for Darwin and the natural world, learning about the intricate ways other animals live the life she’s being denied. Hopper’s Enoch is more troubled, though it’s hard to say sometimes, given the few times his facial expressions really change.
It’s probably unfair to blame the young stars for this awkward film: They might have simply been following direction. Death is too important a subject, perhaps, to leave to a director who, throughout his career, has evidenced an affinity, at times too close, for youth.
