ugh

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2004)

Alright, so most of you and your comments are totally perplexing me. How desperate are some of you for a decent film that you are ushering this amusing but immensely flawed picture in as the greatest film of the year? I'm sorry, but this film was nothing but a let down and inconsistent, despite best efforts.
And I don't mean to seem condescending in any way. I'm simply stating my feelings, which, in a bias way, I deem truthful and right. So...
The film started itself out on an interesting foot, slow and capable but engaging and endearing. It makes us care about the lead character, who, I might add, is quite the fox. Amusing scenes at his work as well as his mother's funeral and reception build the audience up for a calculated, dark, and moody film exploring the psyche of a confused young adult.
But right about the time Natalie Portman hits the screen, and she's very good, the sh*t truly seems to hit the fan...hard. Plugging The Shins mindlessly and for no decent reason other than "because" starts the pitfall. Then the erratic chain of events that ensues merely causes the film to crumble. While I enjoyed some of the scenes at Portman's house, everything rang false and flat, deriving from a rocky script, not poor acting.
The tension with the father, which is supposed to explain the troubled Braff's ways and lack of emotion, comes across WAAAAY underdeveloped and lackluster--completely dull and emotionless. How can we care about a relationship with a father that is one dimensional and boring? How can we care if things get patched up when we never really understand anything but anger and confusion between the two? It's rather ridiculous.
The film tries to end with the stupid hunt for the necklace that only has some hack, sappy memory thought up from a cereal box in the 1950s, and comes across as just that. Where the film could have been more focused on the internal issues conflicting the characters, as well as more deliberate, both of which seemed most plausible at the film's beginning, instead Braff decides to take the trite road to appease the dull and simple-minded. Ending a lifetime of trouble with his father in a stupid monologue over a bed while laying his hand on his father's chest rang false and ridiculous. And the whole "I'm leaving...OOPS, no I'm not, I love you so" ending and the kiss out into darkness could not have been more cliché and more opposite the movie's tone and feeling set-up in the first few frames.
I don't how something so promising could go wrong, other than the fact that Braff got bored and lazy. In the end, I was simply nothing short of disappointed and sit here now incredibly confused how anyone could be anything less. This film is one that will be heralded by few and then drift off into complete obscurity...boo with a capital B.