Sweet drama about the wonderful crappy thing called life

Rating: 7/10 (14 September 2005)

** HERE BE SPOILERS **
Recap: Andrew Largeman lives in LA, a failed actor working as waiter. One day, his alienated father calls and tells him that his mother has drowned, in their bathtub. Andrew returns home for the funeral, and meets with his old friends that handle life in their own ways. There Andrew meets Sam, a habitual liar that somehow gets him. The two seem to match each other and something special evolves.
Comment: A melancholic and humoristic look upon life today. The movie is filled with both funny moments, and emotional, even sad moments. Both Braff and Portman gives great performances and I should mention Sarsgaard as well. One can see clearly though that Braff has carved his own space in Hollywood and will probably be a name to remember for the future. In this movie he has shown that he is able to write a really good story, direct it and do both comedy and drama. Portman's capabilities I already knew about. I sensed though, that Braff is influenced by Scrubs. It might be that I connect him so tightly to the series, but in some scenes in the movie, I clearly felt a very close resemblance between Andrew and J.D. To conclude: This was a sweet funny movie that promises good things for the future. But top 250 on IMDb? Not for me it wasn't.
7/10