Numb!

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2004)

Garden State has received rave reviews and is praised everywhere as something very close to a masterpiece. I just saw the film and I had very high expectations, only to be disappointed to have viewed a quite boring and trivial film. I am truly puzzled as to why so many people liked the film so much.
The essential point of interest in this film must be the characters. I expect any evaluation of the film will be based on whether their dilemmas, personality and life styles are presented in a credible way, in a way that makes you identify with them.
I guess this is exactly where the film fails for me. The characters seem to me less than credible, somehow superficial. Natalie Portman is adorable, of course, but do we even believe that such a girl truly exists? And why is she so attracted to Largeman? Largeman is weighed down by his father's decision to keep him in a state of indifference through medication. He blames him for his mother's disability when it was just a freak accident. All his life Largeman has escaped into numbness because he may be a dangerous person who is capable of hurting other people in a very concrete manner.
And then what happens? Largeman meets this incredible person, who really is "incredible" and everything changes. He starts to talk. He tells his old friends, people he hasn't seen for 10 years about himself. They go on an odd quest to find his mother's favorite necklass, and they scream into the abyss. They fall in love, separate briefly, and then decide to give love a try. The essence of the film being: Life is now - let's live it.
It's all very conventional and very mainstream. There is nothing independent about it, if independent means making it new, showing the audience something from a different perspective. It does not suffice to make quirky characters if they do not ring true. But it pretends to do so, it pretends to have something essential to say.
An intelligent version of the same theme was done with credible characters in "Beautiful Girls" by Ted Demme. Watch that one instead!!
3/10