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RESTLESS

“Superficial Romance”

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

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Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

RESTLESS is a Chinese-American co-production, a multicultural romantic comedy set in contemporary Beijing, China. Catherine Kellner stars as an American named Leah, who works as a translator at a Chinese newspaper. Leah is determined to get revenge on her cheating boyfriend, but falls in love with a charismatic Chinese teacher of the game called Go. Meanwhile, a brash Chinese-American surfer dude named Richard visits his relatives in Beijing and falls in love with a woman whose parents want her to marry another man, certainly not a shallow American.

The attempts at comedy in RESTLESS are a bit ham-handed, but the characters may grow on many viewers once the story gets going. Still, the content in this movie is shallow, superficial and uninvolving at times. An attempt is made at serious drama by focusing on the cultural differences between Leah and her new love and between Richard and his. This element comes to a multicultural, politically correct resolution, which strengthens the movie’s romantic worldview of people. RESTLESS is not overtly political, however, and in fact avoids real controversy. RESTLESS also contains a fair amount of strong foul language and some sexual content

Content:

(RoRo, PCPC, Pa, Co, LLL, S, NN, AA, D, M) Romantic worldview with multicultural, politically correct elements, some ancestor worship & minor Buddhist elements, & some apparent acceptance of Communist authority; 22 obscenities including 8 “f” words, 12 mild profanities & 1 strong profanity referring to Jesus; one fight scene where angry man punches a drunken man being insulting; implied fornication & man paws woman while pinning her against a wall; upper male nudity in bedroom & caressing scenes; alcohol use & drunkenness; smoking; and, lying, subterfuge & movie plays up the Ugly American stereotype.

More Detail:

RESTLESS is a Chinese-American co-production, a multicultural romantic comedy set in contemporary Beijing, China. Catherine Kellner stars as an American named Leah, who works as a translator at a Chinese newspaper. Leah is determined to get revenge on her cheating boyfriend, but falls in love with a charismatic Chinese teacher of the game called Go. Meanwhile, a brash Chinese-American surfer dude named Richard visits his relatives in Beijing and falls in love with a woman whose parents want her to marry another man, certainly not a shallow American.
The attempts at comedy in RESTLESS are a bit ham-handed, but the characters may grow on many viewers once the story gets going. Still, the content in this movie is shallow, superficial and uninvolving at times. An attempt is made at serious drama by focusing on the cultural differences between Leah and her new love and between Richard and his. This element comes to a multicultural, politically correct resolution, which strengthens the movie’s romantic worldview. RESTLESS is not overtly political, however, and in fact avoids real controversy. RESTLESS also contains a fair amount of strong foul language and some sexual content.