Surprised and pleased at every moment

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2004)

Garden State is a sweet film, a romance, a comedy, a drama, a film that defies categorization because it always keeps surprising you, always keeps you guessing. When the film begins, you really have no idea of the wild places it will take you.
The chemistry between Zach Braff (who I loved from Scrubs) and Natalie Portman is fun to watch. Natalie is charismatic, bubbling with energy, definitely a young star. Their budding relationship in the film is treated quite realistically, as more and more revelations about their pasts pop up as the film progresses. I had difficultly believing the end of the film, when his feelings for her are so strong that he gets off his plane to stay with her, but in a way I wanted to believe it.
There are two aspects to this film that elevate it from being a fairly good romantic comedy to being one of the best movies of the year, in my opinion. First of all, the soundtrack. Many of these songs were new to me when the movie came out, but hearing any one of them now conjures up all of the emotions I felt while I was watching it. Secondly, the creative ways they use the camera. Especially in the first part of the film, the interesting and surprising camera angles take you into a bit of a fairy tale world.
Besides the ending at the airport, the one scene that kind of annoyed me was when they went to the hotel and the bellhop character was peeping on some guests and you see a gratuitous, almost X-rated sex scene. Why is that in there? It seemed out of place and annoyed me but not so much as to ruin the film.