sharply observed and funny

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2005)

Zach Braff's first feature is quite impressive, funny, original and surely directed. The film is especially impressive in the early scenes that establish Ancrew's distanced isolation from the rest of the world. The movie manages to shift from comedy to drama easily. And Portman gives one of her patented charming performances as one of those sweet, quirky but only mildly neurotic girls who are so much easier to find in movies than in real life.
But while it is a very good movie, I felt it lost emotional resonance towards the end. This is most striking in the final scene between Andrew and his dad, which should feel like a summation of emotional themes in the movie but instead feels like something that just wasn't sufficiently set up. The problem may be that I liked Andrew but never felt that strongly invested in his life. I can't really point to anything specific and say, this should have been done different, I just should have felt more in the last 15 minutes of this movie than I did. Still, well worth watching.