Almost all of us can accept the fact that people have strange hobbies, but "Restless," which opens today, displays one of the strangest. Enoch Brae (a charming Henry Hopper) goes to funerals. He doesn't know the person who died, nor any of the deceased friends or relatives. He likes to hang out in funeral parlors.
Sometimes he is spotted as an interloper, but it doesn't seem to bother him much.
He has an imaginary friend, too, though he may be considered a little old for the activity. His friend is the ghost of a Japanese pilot from World War II, Ryo Kase (a fine performance by Hiroshi Takahasi).
And then Enoch meets Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), pale and wan and unspeakably lovely — and dying of a brain tumor which, no doubt, will provide him with a funeral he legitimately can attend.
Director Gus Van Sant set this in one of his favorite cities, beautiful Portland, Ore., but there's no spark as everyone plods quietly along "the way to dusty death," as Shakespeare put it so perfectly. Not very interesting.
Restless opens today at the Hi-Pointe
— Joe