Garden State
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Movie Reviews of Garden State
Movie Review: A "State" of Beauty and Grace
Summary: 5 Stars
"Garden State" is one of those rare movies that seems to come out of nowhere and achieve something great. Written, Directed, and Starring Zach Braff, "Garden State" is an obvious labor of love that is easily the best movie that I've seen this year. Braff shows considerable skill as a director with an eye for quirky, haunting images. His screenplay is Oscar-worthy, combining natural humor with real, genuinely affecting emotion. The acting is also first-class.
Andrew Largeman (Braff) is a twenty-something television actor living in Los Angeles. He receives a call from his distant psychiatrist father (Ian Holm) that his mother has died and that he must return home to New Jersey. Andrew does, and also decides to stop taking the medication that he's been on since the age of nine which has left him completely numb to everything in his life. Andrew's escape from this numbness is what "Garden State" is about, and he is helped along considerably when he meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a sweet, slightly kooky pathological liar. The two slowly begin to fall for each other, while Andrew also reconnects with an old friend (Peter Sarsgaard) who doesn't do much except dig graves and get stoned. There is also the strained relationship between Andrew and his father, which is deeply tied to his mother's death.
This film is filled with a multitude of rich, truthful moments, and it is the most realistic portrayal of the journey to finding oneself that I have ever seen. Several times I found myself crying because the dialogue and the relationships of the characters resonated so deeply. Zach Braff is outstanding as Andrew, making you recall Dustin Hoffman's similarly lost youth in "The Graduate." Peter Sarsgaard also puts in another solid performance as Andrew's friend, a man who is content to be nothing more than he is. But it is Natalie Portman who steals the movie as Sam, a part that was written specifically for her. Portman has wasted her talent in the "Star Wars" prequels, and here she gives a ravishing, funny, and heartbreaking performance. Her flawless work in "Garden State," coupled with her upcoming turn as an emotionally damaged stripper in Mike Nichols' "Closer," should be enough to land her an Oscar nomination, if not more.
There is a scene between Andrew and Sam with the two sitting before a fireplace. Andrew tells Sam that he thinks he likes her, and Sam spontaneously starts doing a tap dance in front of the fire. It may sound stupid in print, but on screen it is one of the most sublimely beautiful moments I have ever seen. "Garden State" is full of them. The film also boasts an absolutely amazing soundtrack that does much to enhance the movie.
I cannot put accurately into words how good this movie is. It is a wonderful, special film. I can only tell you to go see it immediately.
Movie Review: Ah, Natalie Portman! -- just let me watch while you live...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll have to admit that for the first ten minutes or so of the film, the casual coarse language used by Largeman (Zach Braff)'s high school buddies seemed like a gratuitous and slightly strained reach toward "hipness," in effort to appeal to a younger generation of moviegoers. Blame this in part on my being on the other side of the generation gap. But as I began to know the characters better, it dawned on me that this WAS the younger generation (at least a real part of its disenfranchised subculture, one of which I know very little) and offers an honest representation of the way they speak.
There is a tremendous heart to this film, characterized when Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard's characters both literally and metaphorically unleash a scream into the "eternal abyss." Their pent-up frustration stems from the recognized irony that each of us is trapped in a world not of his own making with all of its seemingly irrational expectations and demands. Though we may anesthetize ourselves from the sad truths behind our sustaining myth of self-determination, we risk blinding ourselves to the great redeeming aspect of our existance: the love of the people around us.
Natalie Portman as Largeman's girlfriend, Sam, is utterly luminous here. Not to mention she made me fall in love. I am embarassed to say I had to wait for the end credits to discover who this wonderful actress was (I have religiously avoided the obscenely over-merchandised Star Wars films of late and knew little of her adult work since her childhood debut in "The Professional.") Meryl Streep -- your spiritual daughter and future heir is growing up quite nicely.
The film's great heroic act belongs to Sarsgaard's character who leads Largeman and Sam on a bizarre odyssey through the small town's seamy underbelly in quest of an equally bizarre "gift" for Largeman. His gift becomes an understated but moving act of redemption. Redemption is what the film is about. The fact that each of us posesses the power to in some way redeem one another is the movie's great hope.
I understand the squeamish who might balk at the R-rated language. But the lesson here is that there can be redeeming qualities (and even shared values) among those who don't quite view the world through the same eyes. Before you close yourself off from someone else's world that you don't understand, just stand there for a moment -- as on Boo Radley's porch -- and view the world from their shoes. The universe soon begins to look a little different. And a whole lot larger. Don't miss this one.
Movie Review: A Tale Of Two People
Summary: 5 Stars
'Garden State' is a movie that I was recommended to by my mom (lol) for several months now and up until tonight I avoided whatching it-I just didn't want to because she tends to go for sad films about alienation and despair but I watched this all the way through and you know what I think?I really don't know-Zach Braff stars and directs this almost charming film about an actor who has numbed his mind in various ways to block out some a tragic point in his life.THEN his mother is killed in an accident and he has to go back home to confront his the loss and his past.In the beginning this character and his (whom I feel) depraved friends are very hopeless.
Then comes the girl (Natile Portman) into his life-she's,yes just a little left of center but unlike him has no difficulty with emotional expression.For example she and her family have a bad history with pets AND because of her epilepsy is forced to where a helmet to work everyday.Well as the relationship grows Braff finds himself beginning to deal with himself and touch on his repressed feelings.In the end he does and the pair both find comfort in eachother.
The movie has some dull streches and can be a little slow but the general theme is numbness and as the leading man's emotional 'numbness' regresses the pace of the film quickens.In the beginning 'Garden State' comes off as a highly depressing dark comedy to me and by the end there is some emotional release.It's definately worth seeing once for sure because it deals with how human beings can put repress their true heart on a dime if it suits them.But 'Garden State' is also one of those films of which your opinion of it will depend highly on your mood.
As for me personally I watched the movie in a rather depressed and lonely state of mind.The feelings it engendered weren't exactly negative but the comedy of the film largly escaped me at times.I knew the jokes were there but they really didn't hit me.Basically I kept sympathising alot with Braff's character-he seemed to be a decent human being in all the wrong situations until he met the right person for him.
Watch 'Garden State' alone or with a family member-it's not exactly a fun,popcorn movie to have on with a bunch of friends because parts of it are a downer and the sudtle comedy often borders on the morbid.Themes of death,endings and alienation are a recurrent theme throughout-it's not a angst film at all but it's more of a mature kind of sadness.But sadness nevertheless.So watch this and follow it with something more comedic-this film needs a stress reliver afterwards.
Movie Review: learning to feel again
Summary: 5 Stars
Zach Braff has succeeded in doing something that is quite rarely done well, especially on a first attempt - he wrote, directed and starred in his first film - and the whole thing works amazingly well. Braff plays Andrew Largeman ("Large" to his friends), a small-bit actor biding his time in a ritzy Asian restaurant between acting gigs, waiting for another big break. His medicine cabinet looks like he could open his own pharmacy - mind altering drugs such as Vicodin, Paxil, Lithium, Darvoset and others - which leave him in an emotionless rut.
His father (Ian Holm) leaves what sounds like a final, desperate message for him on his answering machine, his mother has died - from drowning in the bathtub. He leaves his drugs behind and heads home to Newark to attend the funeral. Two of his loser buddies from high school days are the drugged-out grave diggers at the cemetery and he stops to say hello and is invited to a party... anything to avoid talking to his father who he has successfully avoided for 9 years.
The party is a drugged-out nut-fest with some fold-yourself-in-half humorous scenes that follow the next morning when he awakens after his night-long stupor. The film is more of an experience than just a movie - glimpses into the quirky, odd little eccentricities of normal, everyday people.
As the drugs (both prescription and illicit) finally find their way out of his body, Andrew finds himself awakening to life anew. He is starting to feel things for the first time in memory... even pain is a welcome friend when contrasted with emptiness. Just as his head begins to clear the haze, he finds Sam (Natalie Portman), a girl fighting her own family and neurological demons and closeted skeletons. The two make fast friends and find themselves taking a journey that is more wild than any drug or siezure induced experience that either of them have ever been through.
The R rating is appropriate - there is paint-peeling language, a plethora of illegal drugs, and a raunchy sex scene (not between the lead actors - rather a view of the Garden State's underbelly)... so this is not a family film.
There are many tender and bittersweet moments. It's amazing that Braff was able to pack in so much into one film with so many characters, and enable you to get emotionally involved with nearly all of them, particularly the leads. I will be shocked if he doesn't at the very least get an Oscar® nomination for best screenplay for this freshman effort - this is a stunning piece of filmmaking and a film well worth seeing and experiencing.
Movie Review: BRAFF'S GARDEN GROWS
Summary: 5 Stars
Andrew Largeman has been on anti-depressants and mood enhancers so long he doesn't know what to feel when he gets the call that his mother has died. The one-time actor, best known for playing a mentally challenged football player in a television movie, drops everything and heads home to New Jersey for the first time in eight years.
Largeman may have boarded the plane with just the shirt on his back, but arrives in the Garden State with more personal baggage than the Hilton sisters at a sleep-over.
Garden State, which marks the writing-directing debut of star Zach Braff (Scrubs), is a finely- tuned character study that has a lot to say about the human condition. All jokes aside, Garden State emerges as a breath of fresh air in a stagnant late August, a film that not only has something to say, but does so in a refreshing, off-the-cuff approach. As the film's triple threat, Braff is to be commended on not just making an assured debut behind the camera, but for making a film that should stand up to the test of time.
As the film's writer, I was constantly amazed at Braff's observations and depth of reference. You never feel that these characters only exist within the confines of the frame. As director, Braff has picked a winning cast who bring his characters to life. Each and every one draw us into Braff's world, hitting just the right pitch to match the script's unique blend of dark comedy and raw emotion. Once we become part of this world, it's hard to leave.
Braff peppers the script with casual insights and bits of business that captivate us with their simplicity and honesty. There are revelations, but their design isn't to slap us across the face but expose us to another level of the truth, and it's this sincerity that makes Garden State so inviting. These may be dysfunctional people, but at least their not afraid to admit it.
Once home, Largeman makes the rounds, connecting with old friends (Peter Sarsgaard, perfectly laid back), new loves (Natalie Portman, sweet and engaging), marginal acquaintances (half the town thinks he killed himself), finally settling down for the much dreaded father-son confrontation with Ian Holm as the appropriately distant patriarch.
Braff is to be admired for making a film that is as entertaining as it is thoughtful. His talent and connections have afforded him the opportunity to create rather than regurgitate. He didn't squander the opportunity.