DRAMA; 1hr 31min
STARRING: Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper, Ryo Kase
Soul mates: Wasikowska and Hopper
The components could break down as hard to swallow: one terminally ill girl with three months to live (Wasikowska as Annabel), one grieving, funeral-fixated boy (Hopper as Enoch) who falls hard for her, and one kamikaze ghost (Kase as Hiroshi) who obviously has his own issues. But director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting ) comes at them with an approach so bright-eyed and matter-of-fact that the tragic and the loopy are full of light.
The credit for that must also largely go to Jane Eyre’s Wasikowska: she brings a translucent bounce to cancer sufferer Annabel, whose celebration of what little life she has left becomes a lesson in healing. As the radical opposite of disconsolate Enoch, who lost his way after his parents were killed in a car accident, Annabel absolutely knows how to live. So while Restless necessarily heads down some dark paths, they’re not what its journey is about.
