Garden State

Rating: 8/10 (5 February 2005)

Garden State, is about an emotionally numb young man named Andrew Largeman, who lives in Los Angeles, working as an actor and one night gets a call from his father Gideon Largeman, telling him that his mother has died. Andrew, returns home and this is the first time he has been home in close to ten years. While back at home he hangs out with some of his bizarre friends including a grave digger named Mark. Soon, Andrew meets a young woman named Sam, who starts to bond with Andrew, and soon they become friends. The rest of the film shows Andrew bonding with his friends and reliving memories of his home town. Winner of The CFCA Award for Best New Director (Zach Braff) at The Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, The Pauline Kael Breakout Award (for actor, writer and director Zach Braff) at The Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, The NBR Award for Best Debut Director at The National Board Of Review, The OFCS Award for Best Breakthrough Filmmaker at The Online Film Critics Society Awards and The PFCS Award Breakout Of The Year Behind The Camera at The Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards. Garden State, has good direction, a good script, good performances from everybody involved, good original music and good cinematography. Garden State, is sweet, unique, original, quirky, heartfelt, has some really good dialogue, is clever, well acted and full of very likable and unique characters. Garden State, is a nice and sweet movie that is original, entertaining and very quirky and fun. Zach Braff (who stars on TV's Scrubs) does a very good job here and I see him going far in the future with a career as a writer and director. One of the best films of 2004.