I got restless watching Restless. In other words, I was bored.

I went into the movie armed with Kleenex and sunglasses and expecting a coming-of-age Terms of Endearment. But it just didn’t move me, despite its heartbreaking premise.

The film stars Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper as Annabelle and Enoch, kindred spirits who meet at a funeral that Enoch has crashed. Annabelle helps the recently-orphaned Enoch reconnect with life even as she faces imminent death from brain cancer. The film has some sweet moments and some strange ones too. For instance, Enoch’s best friend is the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase). Still not sure what that’s all about.

Anyway, it’s possible that Restless is one of those indie films that works on some deeper and more profound level than my brain was willing to process… kinda like The Tree of Life (except, thankfully, Restless does have a story with an obvious beginning, middle and end). But as cancer movies go, I suggest you take a pass on this one and wait a week for 50/50, a poignant movie about cancer that will make you cry, and laugh a lot too.

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