Categories: English Movie ReviewsMovie Reviews

Restless (2024) Review: An Anxiety-Filled Ride!

Grief and stress often go hand in hand as part of the human condition. The wave of sadness that comes with the loss of a loved one, especially a parent, often quickly transforms into unfortunate added stress. First comes deciding on funeral arrangements, who will take their house, where their belongings will go, and where that leaves you mentally and emotionally.

Nicky (Lyndsey Marshal) finds herself in a similar situation when her parents living next door in a conjoined building pass, leaving their home open for sale. Deano (Aston McAuley), a young, wild partier buys the house almost instantly, leaving Nicky with little time to grief or even get rid of the keys to their home. When one loud night of banging music and partying jolts Nicky out of sleep turns into every night all night, she finds herself in a dangerous predicament of outrageous tension and pain.

Restless plays like a classical piece of orchestra music, mirroring Nicky’s emotional tie to her father’s old classical cassettes and CDs. Her routine life of working as a medical assistant followed by quiet nights at home is like the beginning of a piece, often tranquil, setting the stage. Deano’s entrance brings a sense of anxiety and elevation that knocks Nicky’s world sideways, the way a musical piece builds up and becomes more intense.

Jed Hart’s film has moments of pause as well, having Nicky attempt to gain trust and alliance with her against the new neighbor as well as quiet nights sleeping in her car miles away. This again amplifies towards its conclusion when Nicky’s constant attempts to silence Deano and his friends results in more severe attempts and over the top actions. In this, Hart is able to create a cinematic parallel between its characters and the theme of music to display the tension and structure of this movie.

Furthermore, Restless (2024) feels like an entry in the long life Nicky has lived so far. Because of this, the film sometimes feels like it is missing the backbone that holds everything upright to feel like a fully fleshed out film. It has the pieces that make up an engaging script and technical elements that create an unsettling atmosphere but in its conclusion it feels too much of an open and closed book that leaves little room for the nuances that often make up a complicated life of a grieving woman.

Deano feels a little too much of a one sided party animal with little empathy for anyone at all, making him a little too easy to despise during the course of the film. Nicky however is more interesting to watch as we see the borderline criminal decisions she often makes because of the intense stress she is under. It gives her more layers to examine even if the film struggles to do that with elements outside of the neighbor situation at hand.

Restless does successfully use its sound design and direction to make its audience feel the way Nicky does. The constant banging of the music against the walls followed by silence when Nicky leaves to go in her car gives the audience a sense of peace among the head banging sound. These short moments of pause provide a better feeling of Nicky’s internal suffering having to deal with the loss of her parents and large intervals of noise that amplifies her already unstable feeling.

The film never feels overbearing, subjecting the audience to insane levels of noise to make it difficult to watch, but just enough for us to empathize with Nicky and feel her exact pain. Restless is a worthwhile watch and a nice first entry into the directing world by Jed Hart.