Manipulative, Meandering, Missing Meaningful Content

Rating: 5/10 (23 January 2019)

30 October 2005. Unlike most viewers, I found this movie manipulative in the beginning, overly cute, the slice of life experiences disconnected, disjointed, and the actual substance of the movie light and never really joined together sufficiently, only glanced at. The movie was unusual, but the main character really didn't feel continuous in his transformation. There was never any serious attempt to focus on and take the time to really experience important points (particularly father/son) in the movie and the ending became another in a series of typical movie endings. Unlike Lost in Translation (2003) that spent time in a more connected milieu even while in a disconnected place or even Prime (2005) that spend a good amount of time on the relational issues involved, Garden State seems to take events and experiences wanting to have some impact at times, but it seems too much and too superficially handled. I found myself wandering, wanting more, and getting uneasy about how oddity came about for oddity sake. Six out of Ten Stars.