Here's a trailer for Restless, a surprisingly sappy-looking teen romance about a girl dying of cancer who falls in love with a death-obssesed boy who hangs out with the ghost of a Kamikaze pilot. Yeah, it's one of those.

So it's basically a hybrid of the kind of whimsical indie fare that features strange, knowing young men who are slightly addled (think Hugh Dancy in Adam) mixed with Nicholas Sparksian saccharine about sad secret teen death (A Walk to Remember). This is something of a surprise from Van Sant, who's been working in a distinctly unsentimental style of late. Well, I guess Milk had its moments, but they were far less frequent than they could have been in another director's hands. This Restless movie seems to harken back to Van Sant's commercially heart-tugging Finding Forrester days, while still employing his more recent feathery camerawork and beautifully framed moving portraits of beautifully faced young people (the gentlemen especially). The Sweet November-esque secretly dying trope is pretty tired at this point, but I am curious to see what Van Sant does with it. I'm hoping the movie is more Gerry than Forrester.

And I'm certainly curious about this Mia Wasikowska, who in a few short years has become quite the toast of Hollywood. Here she's (co-)carrying a movie for the first time (Alice in Wonderland doesn't count), so let's see if she's up to the task!

Anyway, I'd invite you guys to come see this with me, only... I probably won't be around to see it. You see, the thing is... I'm dying.