Too Much of Some Things and Not Eough of Others

Rating: 3/10 (17 April 2005)

I wanted to like this movie. I enjoy Zach Braff's work on "Scrubs" and I had heard good things about his directorial debut. Unfortunately, I don't like this movie. I feel it was over-directed, the director's technique squeezing out opportunities for emotional truth to develop.
Braff plays a 20-something who returns to his home in New Jersey to attend his mother's funeral. While he is there he encounters old and new friends and gets a chance to figure out what's wrong in his life. Braff is OK in the lead role. He plays it very flat. Too flat, in my opinion. I understand his character's situation, but never really get inside his head or work up much enthusiasm to appreciate what he is going through. Natalie Portman does a good job with her performance, it's her character I can't stand. Maybe I've seen too many "Quirky Cute girl Who Is Hiding Her Pain"-type roles (in other movies and on TV) to appreciate this one. Her role is vastly overwritten. It's almost like Braff was worried the audience would stop liking her if she stopped showing how unique she is. I have absolutely no empathy for any of the other characters. I just could not see past their prominently displayed idiosyncrasies to care about them.
The movie starts off with a affectively moody atmosphere, a very good setting for a story of 21st century alienation. Unfortunately Braff does not sustain the airless, melancholic tone he establishes at the beginning. By the time the third act comes around the whole thing felt as processed as a can of sardines, or a standard sitcom. Despite the flaws, Braff does show promise as a film maker. I hope his next project has a lighter touch, and that he gets out of his characters way as far as letting them be characters and not an exhibit of peculiarities.