Restless (Cannes 2011)

Gus Van Sant doesn't shy away from controversial filmmaking. From twiddling with the tragic facts of the recent past (the Columbine Massacre in previous Palme d'Or winner Elephant, Kurt Cobain's life and death in Last Days) to carelessly mucking about with one of cinema's most defining moments (Psycho). Focusing on those projects alone though ignores what he can also do when working on more straightforward fare. There's no remarkably new elements here, but the inventive way they've been sewn together by Van Sant makes for a touching and wonderful film.

Restless opens with Enoch (Henry 'son of Dennis' Hopper) tracing around himself with white chalk. He's a "funeral-crashing dropout without a car" and also holds regular conversations and Battleships games with an imaginary friend, a late WWII kamikaze pilot named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase). After the opening reels, he also has a love interest in Annabel (Mia Wasikowska). While Enoch obsesses over death, Annabel stares right down the barrel of her own demise, remaining vibrant and full of life despite a terminal brain tumour. For all their differences, she and Enoch inevitably hit it off, but there's only one way this story can end, isn't there?

As Enoch and Annabel get together, you get helplessly drawn into their depth of feeling. The simple joy they bring each other is life-affirming. Restless is an honest and unfussy film, which presents love as the perfect and only riposte to death. It should perhaps end a few minutes sooner than it does, but even a superfluous final scene is salvaged by the disarming use of Nico's twangy 'Fairest Of The Seasons'. A calm, sometimes heartbreaking, tender ode to love.

> Watch the Restless trailer here
> Gus Van Sant's Restless: In Pictures