Nicky, woman living alone, has her life turned upside down when a loud and noisy family moves in next door.
RESTLESS didn't connect to me. I never really connected to Nicky. A mild mannered woman who loves classical music, she seemed a little off to me. She seems a little too restrained at the start. It feels like writer director Jed Hart is stacking the deck.
Actually what kept me distant from the film is that you can feel Hart's hands all over this film. Everything is set up for perfect effect, and to steer us into feeling exactly precisely what he wants us to feel. There is no room to feel anything except what we are told. Yes this results in some great sequences where classical and other types of music are used, but at the same time the way it's done is more effective than what the characters do.
Additionally what bothers me is that the plotting isn't the best. The events, if the opening title are to be believed, take place roughly over a week. That seems to be too short a time for the escalation. Especially since the the music and noise that made Nicky nuts really wasn't all that intrusive. (This could be a problem with the print I saw which seemed to have a low volume for everything except the classical music).
I hate to say it I sided with Nicky's neighbors. I'm not certain I was supposed to feel that, but then a lot of this seems uncertain, particularly the tone which seems to want to be a thriller...and a comedy but can't seem to blend them.
It could have been me since I'm not a fan of the neighbor's from hell genre. Going all the way back to NEIGHBORS in 1981 when Dan Aykryod tormented John Belushi, the genre never clicked with me
While RESTLESS has moments and cool sequences, I don't think it works as a whole.
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