Restless(2025)

“Nicky” (Lyndsey Marshall) is a mild-mannered nurse who likes nothing better than a bit of classical music or the snooker on the telly. Her son has moved away and her parents, who used to live next door, have died. It’s that vacant property that soon proves to provide the bane of her life when a new neighbour moves in - and boy does he like to party. She tries to persuade “Deano” (Aston McAuley) to tone it down a bit - even offers him some hand made chocolate (?) brownies, but he has no intention of behaving himself like a civilised person and soon she is at her wits end. Sleep deprivation, reduced to catching what she can in her car, even contemplating staying over with her well meaning (and expectant) old friend “Kevin” (Barry Ward) but this cannot go on. What can she possibly to do bring him under control? Well, you know what they say about a woman scorned? Well, keep her awake for long enough and muck about with her dog and you are bound to find out! Marshall works well enough as the put-upon character but the writing here is lacklustre and the audio mixing is downright poor at times. As the film proceeds, her desperation starts to lose it’s potency and the story doesn’t really get to go anywhere, it loses the little semblance of dark humour it had at the start and becomes something a little awkwardly implausible to watch. The denouement gives us a great example of fighting fire with oil, but this really just comes across as a good idea for a short feature that’s over-stretched to ninety minutes. Does make you appreciate a good night’s sleep, though!