A moving, but frustrating indie

Rating: 6/10 (27 August 2012)

Zach Braff's first foray into directing as well as writing is a warm, funny and expressive journey into the life of Andrew Largeman, whose life has led him on a constant downward spiral ever since his mother had a terrible accident fifteen years earlier. It is said mother's death that draws him back to the town he left behind 9 years earlier, and forces him to come to terms with the life he has led.
The movie is a colorful, and at times daring experiment with a great soundtrack and a number of quirky side characters that spices things up when the main story gets to depressing. The script is quite impressive in a number of ways, and that Braff did this all by himself, considering his young age is even more impressive. Unfortunately the movie, while strong in a number of ways is let down by a couple of weak key components that drags it down.
Constantly medicated, and without any real kind of connection to the world around him, Braff's acting skills are put to the test, and unfortunately he's not up to the task. He constantly comes across as annoying, and his delivery of what could have been quite good, and heartfelt dialogue is generally underwhelming. Natalie Portman gives us a more believable portrayal as Sam, the notorious liar with a big heart. Sadly, her character is as believable as she is annoying, and her quirkiness just makes you cringe at times. This, combined with the fact that the movie at times seems to try way to hard to fit into the alternative indie-genre weakens the overall impression.
On the plus side, we get some truly memorable scenes, characters and probably the funniest version of "three times a lady" you will ever hear. If you enjoy Indie cinema "Garden State" is one of the essential movies of the last decade, but time has not been as kind to the movie as one would hope. It may have been a trendsetter, but it has been exceeded by later additions to the genre.