TIFF 2011: Restless

TIFF kicked off yesterday and while most of the crowds were at Roy Thompson Hall trying to get a look at Bono and the Edge I was in line for my first film of the festival.

Restless stars Mia Wasikowska (my, she's been busy hasn't she?) and Henry Hopper (son of the late Dennis Hopper in his first role) as Annabel and Enoch, who 'meet cute' at a memorial service that she is attending as a friend of the deceased and he is crashing, what appears to be somewhat of a habit/hobby of his. She's a terminally ill cancer patient and he's a boy obsessed with death who hangs out with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII. Of course they are perfect for each other. The movie was directed by Gus Van Sant (Milk, Good Will Hunting), with a quiet pace, well integrated sountrack and many lingering shots of both Wasikowsa and Hopper. And while Wasikowska is clearly the better actor of the pair I was pretty impressed by Hopper's first performance on screen. It was a good film. Not likely to be one I recommend seeing over others but by no means a waste of 90 minutes.

Van Sant, Wasikowsa, producer Bryce Dallas Howard (looking lovely and very pregnant) and first time screenwriter Jason Lew attended the screening and hosted a Q&A after the film. I was somewhat surprised to see Howard on the stage as I would have assumed upon seeing her name as a producer on the film that it was more of a token credit, but she seemed to have been quite an active participant. Apparently she and Lew went to school together and she was one of the first people to read the script and was involved with the film through the entire process including being on set through filming. Most of the questions were standard fare with answers about what it was like to work with Van Sant, the casting and filming process and the motivation for the script until the poor moderator had to deal with the man from the audience who, when given the last question of the evening, asked Wasikowska if he could have a hug. I really don't understand people who do something like this at a film festival. In the confusion the guy actually thought she had said yes and was in the process of rushing the stage when the moderator managed to stop him from ascending the stairs, all the while poor Mia looked terrified. Kind of a silly ending to an evening spent thinking about death.