disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (15 May 2005)

Obviously inspired by The Graduate, Say Anything, and countless other coming of age films, Garden State is a pretentious and amateurish disappointment.
On the plus side, the soundtrack is perfect, and the cinematography is absolutely lovely. Some of the performances work. Zach Braff is an appealing sort of every guy -- nice, quirky, not too quirky. Peter Sarsgaard is excellent as always, giving depth and meaning to a character even when the script is weak.
On the negative side, the dialog is embarrassingly bad, and some of the scenes (the one involving the hotel comes to mind) seem like they belong in another film. Natalie Portman, whom I usually love, is annoying, although I'm not sure if the script might be more to blame than her. The great Ian Holm is completely wasted.