When Is Natalie Portman Going To Find a Man Her Own Age?

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2005)

GARDEN STATE (2+ outta 5 stars) I had high expectations for this movie... but, after finally seeing it, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. It's well-done... the acting is fine and the directing and writing are decent... but over-all the movie just seems to be missing the final spark to set the whole thing aflame. Zach Braff (of TV's best sitcom, Scrubs) stars as a severely depressed actor, hooked on medication, who returns to his old hometown for his mother's funeral. He faces some childhood issues and, with the help of a funny, spunky (and underage???) girl he meets in a hospital waiting room, he gets off his pills and starts to enjoy life once again. How many movies has Natalie Portman been in now where she plays the funny, spunky (underage?) girl who is the catalyst for the renewal of an older man's appreciation of life? (Leon The Professional, Beautiful Girls, Closer... can we work Star Wars in there somehow?) Maybe the problem with the movie is just that it starts out so slow and ponderous as it sets up the bleak, depressive state of its main character? Maybe if it had started with him meeting Natalie Portman and then working backwards to explain his condition it might have been easier to sit through? Anyway, a nice try from director/writer Braff... but it just didn't work for me.