RESTLESS
US, 2011, 91 minutes, Colour,
Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper, Ryo Kase, Schuyler Fisk, Jane Adams.
Directed by Gus Van Sant.
A story of love and grief, of illness and death.
The protagonists are a young man and a young woman who might be described as free spirits. He lives with his aunt after his parents’ death. She cares for him, but he is absorbed in his own preoccupations. One of these is attending funerals of people that he doesn’t know. Sometimes he is accepted. Sometimes he is invited to get out. She notices him at a funeral and decides to follow suit. They have a lot in common and an attachment grows that leads to love and a sexual relationship. The difficulty is that she is terminally ill. Nevertheless, Van Sant (whose films are sometimes accessible, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forester, Milk, sometimes a little rarefied, Gerry, Paranoid Park, Last Days) really tells a short story here that younger audiences will identify with, older audiences finding it a little twee.
There is more.
The young man has a lively imagination and has created a ghostly friend, a Japanese kamikaze pilot, who appears and disappears and who serves as a companion and challenging alter ego. He has many reflections on death and choices which sometimes help, sometimes confuse the young man in his relationship with his sick friend.
The stars are Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre, Albert Nobbs) and Henry Hopper, the son of Dennis Hopper. The film is quite short, more like a short story. A light addition to Van Sant’s film list.
1. A film of young adults? The portrait of the two in themselves, their relationship, prospects of death? The work of Gus van Sant?
2. Real/surreal, in plot, characters, their behaviour, attitudes? The presence of the ghost of the kamikaze pilot? Visually real/surreal? The musical score?
3. The funeral, the meeting, sharing, the love, wanting to help? Facing death? The irony of their attending funerals?
4. Annabel, her age, experience, terminal cancer, her life so far, love of nature, interest in Charles Darwin? The prospects for her final months?
5. Enoch, his age, experience, the death of his parents, coma, his opting out of life, the presence of the Japanese ghost?
6. Enoch, forming a bond with Annabel, his wanting to help, the restlessness of the two, tempting fate? Annabel and wanting to live, defying death?
7. The effect on each of them, the pressure of life, pain and anger, yet playfulness?
8. Two misfits, the experience of self-assertion? But having to face reality, death?
9. How real was the ghost, the Japanese kamikaze pilot, as a ghost or reincarnated? His presence, Enoch sharing with him? Enoch and his openness to another world?
10. Annabel, her sister Elizabeth, and anchoring in reality, her advice to Annabel, her warnings?
11. The overall effect for younger audiences, for older audiences and the memories?
