Mia Wasikowska is obviously a highly skilled and communicative actress — a young Meryl Streep-y type — but she’s never really gotten to me on a deep-down level because she’s rather plain-looking and her acting, while honest and captivating, is, I feel, probably a little too inward and technique-y. She was as direct and solemn and soulful as she could have been in Jane Eyre, but…it’s hard to express but she wasn’t enough for me.

I greatly admired/enjoyed Wasikowska’s performances in HBO’s In Treatment and in The Kids Are All Right, but otherwise it’s been one low-flame encounter after another. But the indie-upscale end of the film industry is completely sold on her, and that’s that. And you’ll never hear me say she’s not a very high-grade actress.

In any event, the Cannes Film Festival guys announced this morning that Gus Van Sant‘s Restless, in which Wasikowska costars with Henry Hopper, will open the Un Certain Regard section on 5.12.

Restless is about a girl with a serious illness (Wasikowska) who becomes friendly with a oddball kid who has an Asian ghost friend. It was originally going to play Sundance2011 and come out in late January, and then it was yanked because of some marketing hunch. It’ll be released by Sony Pictures Classics sometime in the fall.