Seriously Overrated, skip this and watch Braff in the Last Kiss

Rating: 2/10 (15 February 2007)

Garden State stars Zach Braff (widely known as the guy from Scrubs) as Andrew Largeman, a guy who has been on tranquilisers for most his life and as a result is almost unable to feel emotions. The film chronicles a week where he returns to his hometown after the death of his mother. Garden State begins with some stylish direction, Coldplay background music and a curious dead pan performance from Braff that draws you into the movie. However it is all down hill from here. Garden State is a quirky art house indie style movie that refrains from being totally off the wall. However, whilst word of mouth was positive on the film I think that people must have been confused or smoking the drugs depicted in the movie. The pace of the film is not only slow but at times excruciating, (I wished that somebody would kill me when they visited the caravan at the bottomless gorge). I found myself reaching for the forward button on a number of occasions but held out in order to deliver an informed and impartial review for the readers of this script. Quirky is fine but should not be at the cost of entertainment. Garden State touches on a number of serious issues including family relationships, tragedy, growing up and regret but delivers this within the confines of an art house quirky structure. This genre by definition is often very hit and miss but I would confidently say that Garden State falls into the miss category. There are a number of insightful threads to Garden State that deal with many serious issues in a non conventional way but this is overshadowed by the sheer fact that the movie is slow, boring and often annoying in places. Probably best to spend your time doing something else.