Oh dear

Rating: 2/10 (12 November 2008)

It is amazing how many people like this movie and what a good rating it gets from IMDb. I often use IMDb to help me choosing films and by and large, I find the ratings quite meaningful. However, after watching Garden State I find myself in the rare situation of completely disagreeing with the bulk of reviews. I have been looking for clues inside the reviews, anything that I may have missed but could not find anything to persuade me that this film is not the most boring, dull and pointless trash that I have seen for a long time. Zero characters, zero story development. The people in this film act just downright stupidly, most particularly the character of Sam (Natalie Portman) who confuses being weird with being interesting - her antics are just downright stupid. Largeman (Zach Braff) sleepwalks emotionless through his role, you get the feeling that he doesn't really want to be there (which is surprising, given that this is very much his own film). I suppose that this is the idea of Largeman the character but then why make a film about someone as bland as this ? This most certainly not the generation that I know and that I am part of (as some reviews appear to suggest). If anything meaningful can be said about this film it is that this is about a bunch of uninteresting saddoes who do not appreciate the gift of life that they got and simply don't know what to do with themselves.