Restless (2000 film)

Restless (Finnish: Levottomat) is a Finnish romantic film directed by Aku Louhimies and released in 2000. It was entered into the 22nd Moscow International Film Festival.^[1] It was followed by Me and Morrison (2001) and Addiction (2004). Restless was co-written by Aleksi Bardy and its director, Aku Louhimies. However, they did not participate in the two sequels.

The film is about Ari (Mikko Nousiainen), a 27-year-old ambulance doctor. One-night stands are his main pastime. He doesn't want to meet any of the girls again because he is certain that commitment equals pain. But one day Ari realises that he can't feel anything at all. Then he meets a woman named Tiina (Laura Malmivaara) on the beach. Without really intending to, they start dating each other, reaching the point where Tiina, falling in love, begins to look for commitment. Ari is introduced to Tiina's friends who include two other couples. Ari then ends up having sex with Tiina's two best friends (Ilona and Hanna-Riikka). Meanwhile Tiina still continues to love Ari. During this Tiina manages to commit Ari to reluctantly become the father of her to be born child.

Then the film progresses to Ari attending a wedding as the best man to one of his male friends, who coincidentally is marrying one of Ari's previous one-night stands. At the reception Ari, in deep contemplation, tells Tiina that they need to talk. Once they are alone Ari states "what are we going to do?" to which Tiina again questions the commitment of Ari by stating they should get married. Ari opposes her and says that they should separate. To this, Tiina is shocked, so she proceeds to drink excessively at the wedding and ends up revealing to the groom that he has, in fact, slept with the bride and also the priest who has one of the couples that Tiina introduced him too. This leads to a confrontation with Ari knocking both of the couples' men out and leaving the reception.

The film ends with narrating Ari's thoughts as he gets away from it all by physically distancing himself by travelling. In the last scene Ari returns to a church where the priest from the wedding is working.

Cast

• Mikko Nousiainen as Ari
• Laura Malmivaara as Tiina
• Petteri Summanen as Stig
• Matleena Kuusniemi as Ilona
• Valtteri Roiha as Riku
• Irina Björklund as Hanna-Riikka
• Samuli Edelmann as Roope
• Vilma Melasniemi as Piia
• Eija Nousiainen as Arin äiti
• Jaana Järvinen as Helena
• Pertti Sveholm as Pera
• Niina Kurkinen as Päivi

References

External links

• Levottomat at the Internet Movie Database
• Solar Films - The Restless