Restless.

Beautiful Outsiders.

A strange thing happened at the Robert Burns Cinema on Monday night, the Film Club all agreed, en masse, that they liked Gus Van Sant’s latest film, there were barely any reservations, not bad considering that an awful lot of critics disliked the film! In fact I thought it was bordering on the very good although I could not help wondering what writer/director Thomas McCarthy would have made of it, but that’s being picky. Our host for the evening was Julie McMorran who started the night proceedings with an interesting résumé of Van Sant’s films including Good Will Hunting (1997) Last Days (2005) the award winning Milk (2008) and of course the brilliant black comedy To Die For (1995) that won Nicole Kidman a deserved Golden Globe for Best actress.

Harry Hopper plays Enoch.

Tonight’s film, Restless (2011) has been described as a meditation on the meaning of death! It’s a tale of an intimate affair between two beautiful outsiders who are doomed in life and doomed in love. Annabel Cotton, a terminally ill brain cancer patient, falls in love with Enoch Brae, a disturbed teenager who is haunted by the death of his parents in a car accident that put him in a coma for three months. Enoch also introduces Annabel to his friend Hiroshi Takahashi, the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot!

Mia Waslkowska plays Annabel.

Australian actress Mia Waslkowska plays Annabel with a great deal of charm; you may have seen her in Alice in Wonderland (2010) with Johnny Depp or the exceptionally enjoyable and award winning comedy-drama The Kids Are Alright (2010). The son of the late Dennis Hopper, Harry, in his first acting role since the 1996 film Kiss and Tell, portrays Enoch. A real chip of the old block it’s like watching the young Dennis, certainly a star for the future and someone whom the camera loves. With an obvious nod towards Harold and Maude (1971) the performance lead film is certainly worth 91 minutes of your time and it just goes to prove you shouldn’t always take notice of the critics.