Fridae

Mono no aware (物の哀れ), literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of impermanence or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing.

Restless is an American magic-realist hipster exploration of such a concept in the form of a disease-of-the-week picture. It is a hazy daydream with a fairly weak narrative structure, but those are to its merit, since it basically functions as a sort of actor's piece in which Henry Hopper and Mia Wasikowska, fine young actors both, go through as many possible scenarios of two young people who are reconciling themselves to the merciless inevitabilities of grief and loss. Hopper is Enoch, whose parents were killed in an auto accident and who has since been taken care of by his Aunt. He seems to do nothing except crash funerals as a hobby. Wasikowska is Annabelle, who is diagnosed with cancer and has only three months to live. These characters are a breath of the fresh air by genre standards, without the usual melodramatic self-regard that tends to plague the characters in disease-of-the-week films.

Hopper and Wasikowska are a beautiful match and look great together, and Harris Savides' lush cinematography bathes the film in an elegiac twilight mood. Of course, the film is set in the depths of fall, that prelude to death in nature itself, which just makes it all the more appropriate.

Small wonder that given it explores a concept more frequent in East Asian cinema and is the brainchild of Asian-American screenwriter James Lew, that it features some pretty good roles for East Asians: Ryo Kase as Enoch's kamikaze pilot pal Hiroshi, who may or may not be a ghost, and Chin Han as a doctor.

The greatest strength of this film, compared to others in its genre, is its spareness. We never find out a lot about the backgrounds and families of either Enoch or Annabelle, just enough to hint at the deep sadness of their characters. In the same way it is also never explained if Hiroshi is a ghost or an imaginary friend of Enoch's.

As a result the film is able to focus very tightly on that all too brief period in which they are together. Restless as a whole is worth watching for the acting and cinematography, but those in search of stronger narratives might want to look somewhere else. On its own,
it stands as a solid example of mono no aware - Hollywood style.