Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

" I've read a ton of patronizing and harsh reviews of this film that nearly dissuaded me from seeing it. From the very beginning, it seems the viewer has a distinct choice to make: filter the entirety of the film though the lens of reality/cynicism, OR embark on a visceral journey back to a time and emotional space of innocence lost. From a purely pragmatic point of view, this movie amounts to little more than over-dramatized emotional drivel: the cinematic equivalent of the most-maudlin-ever Morrissey record being played on infinite loop. However, if you choose to return to the space of innocence lost, you will no doubt be invited to recall the many dark, magical, and brooding charms of adolescence. You'll remember falling in love for the first time; the ways in which you conceptualized and romanticized death; your growing estrangement from your family...and well, maybe even your first Smiths record. When experienced as a multi- faceted coming-of-age metaphor, this film resonates deeply without trying too hard to create a pseudo-sense of nostalgia. If you: 1) are a grumpy adult 2) never wrote a poem just for the hell of it and/or 3) have always secretly wanted to donkey-punch Morrissey, you may dislike...or even loathe...everything about this film.

Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper) is a morbid teenager that enjoys attending funerals. He meets the teenager Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) in a memorial service and they start to see each other. Enoch has lost his parents in a car accident and lives with his aunt Mabel (Jane Adams). His best and only friend is the ghost of the Japanese kamikaze pilot Hiroshi Takahashi (Ryo Kase) and Enoch neither goes to school nor has a car. Annabel is terminal with brain tumor and lives with her sister Elizabeth (Schuyler Fisk) and her mother Rachel (Lusia Strus). She loves to read about birds, especially the water birds. Soon the unlikely couple falls in love with each other improving their lives."Restless" is a beautiful, romantic and sad movie about love, life and death. Enoch Brae recalls Harold, from "Harold and Maude", a teenager with a trauma attracted by memorial services. Mia Wasikowska is wonderful in the role of the sweet Annabel, a teenager terminally ill that loves life. The story is sensitive and their romance is heartbreaking. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Inquietos" ("Restless")

Just like the tragic characters in the story, I went into the movie with such hope only to realize that the story is as dead as Annabel would soon be.It's a story about a boy, struggling to come to terms with his parent's recent death. Enter the sprightly girl who saves him from getting caught for crashing a stranger's funeral. Predictably, the two fall in love and a seemingly endless montage of young love ensues. Calling the whole love affair sweet would be an understatement that even diabetics would balk at. The story holds no surprising twists- although with each scene involving Hiroshi, you'll find yourself constantly re-drawing the lines separating reality and psychosis and then realizing you just don't care enough to bother anymore- and with no real revelations. They even fail to give any sort of insight into the realities of cancer. Cancer doesn't give you leave to frolic in endless wonderment of the world around you and it certainly doesn't put you in the mood for Halloween and a midnight snack after, it leaves you hunched over the toilet retching your insides out and reaching for morphine while people watch over you and tell you how amazingly strong you are. This movie is just a slap in the face for anyone who has cancer or knows someone with cancer. Rather than creating hope for those unfortunate enough to live with the curse of cancer, it makes them feel terrible by grinding this improbable romance in their faces.To top it all off, the protagonist comes off as a whiny, pre-pubescent little brat who is at best unlikable and at worst completely intolerable. More than once I caught myself cringing at his delivery until at last I gave up and walked away for a much needed break from his incongruous grinning and rock-throwing. (Also, the make-out sessions were simply uncomfortable to watch; which in fairness is only half his fault.)The only saving grace to this whole movie is the superb acting of Mia and how beautifully her grace and dignity was captured on-screen. Unfortunately, none of that is enough justification to watch this pointless and disastrous portrayal of the final moments of a girl waiting for her end.

This underrated film was released just before Christmas in Tokyo. As a long time fun of the director, I enjoyed very much this beautiful film. It appears to be an ordinary boy-meets-girl story with somewhat quirky atmosphere, but inside I found the film is filled with homage to the Nouvellevague cinema. Among them, I remember the film "Cleo de 5 a 7" by Agnes Varda (1962), which includes discussions of mortality, despair and the meaning of life. I also felt the airs of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. If you love the French films in 60s, I believe you will enjoy and appreciate it more. The line by Hiroshi (the Ghost) summarizes the theme of this film. "We have so little time to say any of the things we mean. We have so little time for any of it."