Restless (2011 film)  Restless is a 2011 American romantic drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Jason Lew. It stars Henry Hopper and Mia Wasikowska. Shot in Portland, Oregon, United States, and produced by Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer for Sony Pictures Classics and Imagine Entertainment, it was released on September 16, 2011. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival on May 12. A young man, Enoch, is out of school and has been befriended by a ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot. For unexplained reasons, he attends the funerals of strangers without invitation; at one of these he meets a young woman, Annabel, who says she works with children who have cancer, and the two start spending time together. Later Annabel acknowledges she has cancer herself, a fact which Enoch appears to accommodate, even when Annabel discovers she has only three months left to live. As their relationship becomes romantic, Enoch's placidity is explained by his own history of near-death experience, but when the loss of Annabel becomes a reality his behaviour betrays more evidence of turmoil. Annabel accepts and reacts to this. At Annabel's memorial Enoch asks to speak, but before he says anything memories of the couple's happiness together appear to resolve his grief. The film was produced through Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment by daughter and father Bryce Dallas Howard and Ron Howard, as well as Brian Grazer. In August 2009, Gus Van Sant signed on to direct "Restless". Based on a play by Jason Lew, the story centers on young love and mortality. Lew and Bryce Dallas Howard were fellow drama students at New York University; she encouraged him to take his project further and agreed to be a producer on the script. Her father Ron wanted to direct, but his schedule did not allow for it; "It was honestly like, 'If we could get a Gus Van Sant-type director...' That's what we were saying. We never thought we would actually get him to direct it," Bryce Dallas Howard said in an interview for the film's soundtrack release. "But he said yes immediately, and five weeks later we were shooting." Casting was done in Los Angeles with the intention of casting unknowns for the leads. In October 2009, Mia Wasikowska joined the project as the female lead. Wasikowska cut her hair for the film. The following November, Henry Hopper was cast as the male lead.