anis_ky I couldn't get enough of this movie. It's a sad one ofc, as it's about cancer. But it has humor in it and a bit of comedy. A perfect teen romantic movie. I just smiled the whole time watching this. Both characters are so cute and great. Surprisingly, it's not sad. They made the sadness became happy tears, which are great.

Tafiet Charming is the word I could use to describe the effect this movie had on me. It felt so natural and real. I was sucked into that world so easily in a way that I forgot that the two love interests were acting. Mia Wasikowska has managed to worm herself into the top 10 of my favorite actresses & I have only seen 5 movies that she has been in. That's some incredible talent right there. The score of this movie is also fantastic. Just by telling you that it opens up with a Beatles song tells you a lot about it. One of my favorite musicians Sufjan Stevens' songs also feature in this movie. This adds to the natural feeling of the movie as you do not feel as if it's trying to force you into feeling emotions you don't feel. It's subtle that way. The most impressive thing was how they managed to make a sad storyline so beautiful and not a typical sob story. I was smiling at the end and not crying like I had expected. You learn about the characters and understand how this story will end pretty early on in the movie. "It's a story about a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals." Most of the time this would ruin the story for me and turn it into a snooze-fest. However, I did not even once feel that way with this movie. I fell in love Mia's character so easily. The wardrobe she had was perfect for the character of Annie. Her love interest Enoch played by Henry Hopper was great. I am going to watch every movie he appears in from now on because I was impressed. This movie had the formula of a typical romantic drama but could stand on its own, with its charm and adorableness of the characters. I would recommend this to anyone who likes cutesy love stories.

tieman64 "Restless" finds Henry Hopper playing Enoch, a teenager who has recently lost his parents in an accident. Enoch thus finds himself caught deep in an existential rut. He visits funerals, dresses in dour clothes, is obsessed with death, resolves to give up on life, views everything as being intrinsically "meaningless" and routinely converses with an imaginary Japanese kamikaze pilot. Other morose totems litter the film: dangerous train lines, graveyards, corpses, hospitals, Halloween nights, ghosts, games of battleship, funeral parlours, diseases etc. The film is preoccupied with death.Things get contrived when Enoch meets Annabel, played by a young Mia Wasikowska. Annabel has cancer, is about to die, is fond of wings, birds, flight and Darwin, and is upbeat and grateful despite her imminent annihilation. She, of course, teachers Enoch to love himself, life and be eternally grateful for "whatever few moments he is granted". Both characters wear Euro-chic and look like they've stepped out of a 1960s Godard movie.The film is essentially a shameless rip-off of Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude" - and the countless "oh my God my lover is dying of cancer" romantic weepies it inspired – only more formulaic, less smart and less touching. But it was directed by Gus Van Sant, a gentle soul, who manages to lend the film some kind of credibility. You sense that Van Sant understands these people, identifies with them, and you can feel him trying to skirt over the film's more contrived moments.Van Sant's career tends to alternate between sappy Hollywood dramas and micro-budget, minimalist pictures ("Elephant", "Last Days", "Paranoid Park"). "Restless" merges both approaches; a kind of sappy minimalism.7.5/10 – Van Sant did this stuff better with "Last Days".

rodney_h I'm sorry, I wanted to like this film. I really did. But try as I might, it was just too boring, depressing and ridiculous. Young Annabelle is delightful, courageous and amazing in the face of her impending demise. Her plight is sad but you cannot help but be uplifted by her optimism and bravery. Her sister Elizabeth is so attractive as to almost be distracting. Elizabeth is however, a most remarkable and wonderful sister to our protagonist. Her querying of Enoch on their first meeting, obviously looking out for her little sister's best interest was endearing, as was her delightful banter with Anabelle at the table with the Halloween candy. Our main male character on the other hand is the story's Achilles heel. Enoch is just too screwed up to care for or about. The acting, directing and script make this character out to be nothing more than an extremely unlikeable, rude, obscene, obnoxious, amoral, psychopathic jerk. How can these traits solicit any care or interest? Writing the character this way ruined a potentially heartrendingly beautiful story.