Variety
At once delicate and clumsy, tender and twee, Restless wraps the pain of grief and impending mortality in the balm of a teenage love story.
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Restless (2011)
Outcast romance from director Gus Van Sant (Elephant) starring Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska and newcomer Henry Hopper. Wasikowska plays a terminally ill teenager who falls for a boy (Hopper), a funeral-crasher who's best friend is the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.
201191 minsUSA
DramaRomance
- Director:
- Gus Van Sant ('Milk', 'Paranoid Park', 'Last Days', 'Elephant', 'Gerry', 'Good Will Hunting', 'My Own Private Idaho', 'Drugstore Cowboy')
- Writer:
- Jason Lew
- Cast:
- Mia WasikowskaHenry HopperRyo KaseSchuyler FiskJane AdamsLusia Strus
Restless (2011) | Reviews
38%112 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® Score
All reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Total Film
Not keen on kook? Get ready to fidget. But those up for a sweet-natured romance full of idiosyncrasies will undoubtedly forgive the rather flyweight feel.
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The New York Times
It is hard to say, though, if this film is an argument for denial or a treatise on acceptance. Curiously, and in a way that is sometimes touching and sometimes icky, it does not seem to perceive much of a difference.
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The Guardian
This film is so annoying that as the lights went up, I was to be found hanging from the cinema ceiling by my fingernails, growling.
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Roger Ebert
All of the performances are pitched correctly. Nobody pushes too hard. Nobody underlines anything. Perhaps calmed by Van Sant, the characters seem peaceful, not troubled (as they should be).
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Los Angeles Times
The insistently quirky details don't disguise the fact that the drama grows ever more predictable and precious, complete with falling-in-love montage. Screenwriter Jason Lew's character insights take the form of the obvious.
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Hollywood Reporter
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.
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Empire Magazine
Compared to its direct inspiration - Hal Ashby's blackly brilliant "Harold And Maude" - Restless comes off like an anemic facsimile. After the excellent "Milk," this is more like curdled cheese.
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A.V. Club
Somehow, Van Sant has made a film about life and death in which the stakes never seem higher than whether one insolent kid will stop being such a horrible mope.
Full reviewRestless (2011) | Release Details
Restless (2011) is available to stream in Australia now on Google Play and Apple TV and Prime Video Store.