47
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70MovielineStephanie ZacharekMovielineStephanie ZacharekThe picture is so fluttering and tender, so guileless, that you almost can't believe it was made by an old hand like Van Sant. Then again, maybe you can.
- 63Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversWasikowska, from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Jane Eyre," is an actress of translucent expressiveness. And Hopper has his father's brooding intensity and a quicksilver humor all his own. They are both so good, I suggest you dive into the story unfolding in their eyes rather than the banal one in the script.
- 60Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfGus Van Sant directs his players just shy of mush; he's a filmmaker capable of brilliant dares (Milk, Paranoid Park) and shocking whiffs (Finding Forrester, the pointless remake of Psycho). This one's kind of in the middle.
- 60Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondBoxoffice MagazinePete HammondIf "Harold and Maude" hadn't already gotten there 40 years ago, this quirky but engaging trifle might seem refreshingly original.
- 50VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangAt once delicate and clumsy, tender and twee, Restless wraps the pain of grief and impending mortality in the balm of a teenage love story.
- 50Village VoiceVillage VoiceGus Van Sant's latest - a middle-class hetero teen romance, no less - walks the line between mainstream sentimentality and dark art-house humor so effectively that it seems noncommittal.
- 50The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsSomehow, Van Sant has made a film about life and death in which the stakes never seem higher than whether one insolent kid will stop being such a horrible mope.
- 50Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumAnnabel and Enoch learn from each other, even as time ticks away and the end draws near. Weeping is invited, but by no means required.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe most banal and indulgent of Gus Van Sant's periodic studies of troubled kids, this agonizingly treacly tale comes off like an indie version of "Love Story" except with worse music.
- 25Slant MagazineNick SchagerSlant MagazineNick SchagerGus Van Sant's cinema, which of late has been fixated on immersing viewers in particular times and spaces, takes a detour into excruciating quirkland with Restless.