Good movie in general, great for certain types.

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2004)

Due to the absurd amount of hype built up around Garden State, I walked out of the theater relieved that I was only slightly disappointed. As many have noticed by now, the teaser for the film (teaser, not the full trailer) is just about the best teaser ever created. If you've not seen it yet, be prepared to waste a day or two sitting on Apple's trailer website playing the thing over and over. Well...after doing this for about three months the big day finally arrived for me yesterday. Here are my thoughts:
1. The film is beautiful. Make no mistake about it, Zach Braff painted us a stylish, aesthetically pleasing film. Shots that will (should) make you mumble "ooohhhh, nice shot" in the theater include: Largeman drugged up on a crashing airplane, Largeman sitting alone on the couch while they play spin the bottle, all of the shots at the house party immediately after the spin-the-bottle scene, all of the shots at the pool (great lighting), Natalie tap-dancing in front of the fireplace, and best of all: the shot where the camera fast-zooms out away from the ark, over the gorge.
2. The structure is fantastic. For a guy doing his first film, Braff nails the structure. One very cool tool he uses is bookending most scenes with the same song. He'll have one part of a song play as the "scenery" unfolds, and then end the scene with a different part of the same song. It works. For a movie without a traditional plot, you'll feel at ease allowing Braff to organize the film into a manageable clump of scenes.
3. Natalie Portman is not really a good actress. Can well all just admit this now? It's as if we all saw her amazing performances when she was 13-14 years old (The Professional, Beautiful Girls) and have been pretending that her awful performances since (Star Wars) aren't really happening. The first 25 minutes of Garden State are truly incredible. At one point I was saying to myself "wow, this may be the best film I've seen since American Beauty" (by the way, they both have the same "feel" to them), and then KAPOW! Natalie's character "Sam" is introduced. Sam is supposed to be an adorable, quirky, glass-is-half-full character that every 19-28 year-old male falls in love with. On paper this is great casting. Portman, however, forces it pretty badly. Her mannerisms are fine, and her "crying scene" is believable; everything else is overdone and makes you cringe. Maybe it's bad directing, but no one else in the movie seems to be having any trouble delivering believable dialogue.
4. Amy Ferguson is going to be a star. Yup, that's right, I'm talking about the girl who is in the film for five minutes playing Dana, a party-girl high on ecstasy who makes out with our main character. She is the blonde girl in a grey shirt. She barely has any lines, yet she nails this small role. She's absolutely stunning, which helps, but I'm serious here...it's a great 5 minute performance.
5. The "Ark Theme" is nice. Garden State was initially named "Large's Ark." The idea is this: Large's life becomes a big mess. His mom is dead, he indirectly contributed to her death, his father/psychiatrist is impossible, and he can not feel anything, good or bad. Finally, Large finds things that make him feel again. He finds Sam, he finds a couple old friends, and, as cheesy as it sounds, he finds himself. In the most important scene of the film, Large, Sam and Mark travel to an old ship. A huge rainstorm comes. Zach Finally feels liberated. He climbs up on the "ship", asks two things that mean "the world" to him to join him on the ship. In unison they scream out into the storm. It's a decent metaphor.
6. The ending is disappointing. I won't say anything else except this: for a film so loaded with uniqueness and freshness, the ending is awfully formulaic. I mean REALLY formulaic. Couldn't we have done a little better here?
Garden state is a very emotional journey through a beautiful, romantic movie-scape. If you are tenderhearted (as I am) Garden State will strike a number of chords in you. If you are a tough guy who can't handle a little bit of lovey-dovey stuff you will enjoy the comedy and the cinematography but need a good dose of MAXIM afterward to re-convince yourself that you don't care about emotions. All girls will like this movie. Let me repeat that: ALL GIRLS WILL LIKE THIS MOVIE.