Quirky 'State' of Mind

Rating: 7/10 (21 August 2004)

Garden State doomed itself with it's impressive marketing. Yes, that sounds odd. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Well, by doomed I mean it set a standard it couldn't meet. The marketing will make Garden State a modest gross for its size. The trailer that caught your eye back in February tries here to show that it can be more than just a three-minute collection of the film's best quirky moments. Of course there is something more than a surreal sounding song by Frou Frou but the emotions that emulate here are not as subtle and artfully brought out as they were there.
Zack Braff makes his directorial debut here with a film that combines The Graduate with The Odyssey. Braff has obviously seen The Graduate and has let it inspire him. I don't think he's used to much of the existing material here and that Garden State has enough other original aspects that it's not something people should make a big stink about. The screenplay in question is actually far from the quality of The Graduate. It's overdone in an attempt to be simple. Each character presents a new use for their stereotype but they are still stereotypes nonetheless. The humor is honest and this film that could have a dark cloud hanging over the audience is actually surprisingly funny.
As a director, Braff is too obvious. He's presence is in every scene and not the way M. Night Shyamalan has a presence in a trademark sense but more he goes over the top on director's gags such as color and scene construction. He spends so much time trying to capture reality and is almost on to something when he goes to a very director's shot and we are pulled out of the quirky reality and put back in the movie theater.
It's nice to see that all the actors were top notch here despite their lack of good source material. Peter Sarsgaard, although his character isn't quite what it was in Shattered Glass, he is perfectly cast in this role of Braff's old friend who now does drugs and digs graves. Braff is not new or original with his performance but he keeps things moving and has potential to be good in the future. Natalie Portman may finally be making sense to me. Before all she has been is flat and annoying but with this and her turn in last years Cold Mountain, she's making a comeback form Star Wars.
Garden State wants to be original and quirky. It's not really either. It also wants to be a sweet love story that shows the values of friends and family. Despite a mediocre script and some obvious errors in continuity with the editing, Garden State is a great story about what we leave behind and who we become because of them. ***1/2/*****