At one point or another, we’ve all had noisy and annoying neighbors. In writer/director Jed Hart’s gripping thriller Restless, that concept is taken to the extreme. What begins with a new neighbor playing music at ear-splitting levels quickly escalates into a dangerous situation. The film transforms into a storyline of neighbor versus neighbor with harrowing consequences.
Lyndsey Marshal stars as Nicky. She’s a hardworking woman who only lives with her adorable cat. Like most people, when Nicky returns home from work, she wants to relax and decompress. This includes petting her cat, cooking meals, watching TV, and of course, sleeping before the next day’s shift. However, her entire routine is upended within the film’s first fifteen minutes when Deano (Aston McAuley) moves in next door. To say he’s a partier is putting it mildly. The music, loud enough to rattle Nicky’s paper-thin walls, blares into the wee hours of the morning. So do the conversations and the sex, which Nicky frequently hears, too.

Initially, Nicky tries to make peace with the new neighbor, politely asking him to keep the noise down. Then, one sleepless night turns into two, and three, and four. Lack of sleep affects every aspect of Nicky’s life, from her job, since she has to call off, to her sort of romantic relationship with Kevin (Barry Ward). She eventually lashes out at him because she’s so sleep-deprived and frazzled. Deano denies Nicky’s increasingly desperate requests, and tensions escalate.

It doesn’t help that Nicky has so few people to turn to, since her parents are deceased, her friendships seem scarce, and her relationship with Kevin seems newish. Whether intentional or not, Hart conveys a sense of loneliness pertaining to the protagonist, which makes the frequent parties at Deano such a stark contrast to Nicky’s ho-hum life.

Hart truly builds the film’s suspense and the face-off between Nicky and Deano. What begins with obnoxious music turns into an all-out assault between neighbors. At one point, Nicky even breaks into Deano’s apartment to destroy his sound system, taking a knife to the speakers, puncturing them repeatedly as the only outlet for her anger. By that point, she’s had enough and has no other recourse, since the police ignore her calls to confront Deano.

Though the film’s conflict and narrative are fairly straightforward and simple, that doesn’t make the feature any less entertaining or nail-biting. Meanwhile, the two leads offer riveting performances, especially Marshal, who really conveys her character’s breaking point and stress. You start to feel her character’s sleep deprivation and anguish. McAuley also makes a pretty good villain, though at first, Deano doesn’t come across as all that menacing. That changes past the film’s halfway point. His retaliation against Nicky, especially once she breaks into his apartment, turns more menacing and sinister.

Hart crafted a thrilling feature with Restless. The tension builds to a breaking point, and McAuley and Marshal’s performances lend dramatic weight and tension to a simple premise. What begins with one neighbor partying too hard quickly escalates into a violent situation. This is one jumpy and nerves-on-edge movie.