|
We often hear that the
lives of outsiders are intuitively more interesting than those of
'normal
people'. You can't get more adorably quirky than a blonde high school
dropout
called Enoch (Dennis Hopper's son Henry Hopper). He fills his time
avoiding his
Aunt Mabel (Jane Adams), contemplating
death, which is fitting after the death of both his parents in a car
crash,
speaking to a sensitive and articulate Japanese WWII kamikaze pilot
called
Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), and crashing other people’s funerals dressed in
black of
almost Victorian severity. Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) gets his attention
after
trailing him to several strangers' funerals.
Through their warming friendship,
which is full of playful hijinks, it emerges that rather than
volunteering at
the youth cancer ward, Annie is a patient. The idea of a terminally ill
girlfriend seems to slot easily into Enoch's slightly unreal world.
Through
their shared eccentricities (which beside the ghost, include birds,
Charles
Darwin and watching junior sports), they grow ever closer, including
one
memorable Halloween festivity. Yet internally, the cancer is working
away with
its grim end always a near certainty. Jokes and play, including in the
hospital
morgue, seem only to defer the outcome which hangs over the young
lovers and Annabel's
family.
Restless is visually
beautiful, making optimal use of its chilly, autumnal location of
Portland,
Oregon. The costumes are amazing too, fashioning bold, iconic design
statements
in almost every scene. On a purely aesthetic level, Van Sant's film is
a
knock-out, helped in no small part by cinematographer Harris Savides (Zodiac
and Milk). However, I did have problems with the script by
first timer
Jason Lew. There is a
heavy-handedness about it, forcing the audience into emotive situations
that
feel inorganic to the narrative. It's hard to find specific examples of
what I
mean but I dare say it makes sense during a viewing. The performances
are able
but not immediately engaging or natural, making it hard (for me at
least) to
thoroughly sympathise and empathise. This is terrible to say, but
there's a bit
of 'She's dying, so what...?' about the movie. Perhaps this is
intentional (at
the start anyway) and we are meant, along with Enoch, to arc away from
that
morbid, immature view of life. The problem is, I never really felt a reason in the film to do so. I
did walk away with a better realisation of the importance of funerals
for those
the dead leave behind. The touching things said by loved ones are deep,
personal memories, nuanced with inherent, individual meaning and
beauty. If
this climactic insight is justification enough for a movie, you will
enjoy Restless. Otherwise, you will be vexed.
|
