Garden State Review

Rating: 6/10 (6 November 2011)

Although I didn't find the movie "Garden State" to be one of my favorite movies, it was indeed one of the most entertaining class sessions I've had. I'm a movie fanatic but these days it's hard to find time to watch any so it was nice killing two birds with one stone. I've heard a lot of great reviews about this movie since its debut in 2004 although I cannot say I agree. The cast definitely made for a more interesting movie. If not for the cast, I might have fallen asleep. Natalie Portman who plays Sam, a fun loving carefree spirit, is my favorite actress therefore my undivided attention to the movie was in part because she was in it. Zach Braff, Jim Parsons, and Peter Sarsgaard are other favorites of mine as well, but their characters were not as amusing as Portman's. I was not impressed with the dialogue for a found it quite predictable; a man who left New Jersey to live in New York finds himself living a meaningless life, numb to society, but returns to the smaller city for his mother's funeral (more dampening to his already depressing life) where he is able to find all he didn't think existed: love and color in life. A film critic for Rolling Stone found the movie to be "a hilarious and heartfelt ode to twentysomething angst" (Travers, 2004). I think the use of the word hilarious is a bit of an exaggeration, but it did have its humorous moments. This may be one of those movies you need to watch a second time to really appreciate it because with just watching it the one time and listening to all the raving reviews, I can't really comprehend the magnitude of the movie's said value. The movie was a slower pace than I'm used to. I was hoping for it to pick up, but it didn't do so until the last 10 minutes when Braff's character Large raced off his plane to chase down his love Sam. It was quite depressing for the most part. I know it's supposed to portray him as depressed and you really felt it, but it's not the kind of vibe I hope for when I watch a movie. I hope to either laugh or be at the edge of my seat. The laughs I felt were too far in between.
I didn't really see any parts in the movie where I can say that he reached maturity. He stopped taking his antidepressants which was a turning point for him considering he had been taking them all his life thus he felt better for it. I don't consider him mature because he stopped taking his antidepressants and shared his life story with his friends. He is for the first time able to really think about his life because he wasn't able to before because he was medicated. We really don't know what life changes he was going to make aside from choosing to be with Sam therefore I think it's fair to say we don't know if he had truly matured or not. He had words with his father, but again he wasn't on his medication hence he was able to really come out with actual feelings he felt. The movie's soundtrack was peaceful and complemented the movie wonderfully. "From its story of the awakening of an emotionally numbed young man to its editorial use of a contemporary pop soundtrack that throws in vintage Simon and Garfunkel (''The Only Living Boy in New York''), ''Garden State'' obsessively refers to that 1967 generational landmark" (Holden, 2004). Braff gave an independent movie feel to it which I liked. Next to Portman being in the movie, I liked the fact that it more realistic than anything else. It wasn't filled with any materialistic images or fantasy. It did not have a modernized appearance which I find to be a good thing.