Incredibly Well Written

Rating: 8/10 (27 August 2004)

Maybe Tom Wolfe was right when he said that "You can never go home again", and perhaps Zach Braff has given us a new spin on this statement with his first film, "Garden State".
Braff plays an out-of-work, over-medicated actor/waiter living in Los Angeles. The beginning of the film sees him called home to New Jersey to attend his mother's funeral. Upon his arrival, he encounters high school friends and begins to discover what it means to feel after a lifetime of medicated numbness.
The thing that stands out in "Garden State" is the writing. Braff has an incredible sense of specificity about his writing but is able to make it broad enough so that people of the college/post-collegiate generation can identify with it. The interactions between Braff's character, "Large", and Natalie Portman's character, "Sam", serve not only as witty commentaries on life as someone in their mid-twenties, but also deep philosophical points about growing and maturing into adulthood.
While the writing is exemplary, the acting, direction, and cinematography do nothing to weigh down the material or lift it up to iconic standards. I highly recommend "Garden State" for anyone in their twenties as you will inevitably learn something about your life and reflect on what it means to grow and move on into adulthood.
8/10