In the Waiting Line

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2006)

GARDEN STATE has an unsettling opening scene. Passengers aboard a flight that is going terrifically wrong -- bound to crash as a matter of fact -- screaming, crying, the flight attendant desperate to regain control even when it's clear she might fail, oxygen masks dropping like ripe fruit asking to be picked. A young woman clutches a baby to our left of the screen, and an older woman seen to our right is also in those horrific moments of hysteria. A young man, though, smack in the middle, does nothing, says nothing, but looks straight ahead, eyes a blank.
Of course, this is a dream. No such thing is occurring, and even when it could signify the terror aboard a doomed flight in the wake of 9-11 sensibilities and the current release of UNITED 93 at the Tribeca Film Festival. But the young man seen in this dream sequence awakens to an empty room, lying in bed in a stupor, ignoring his father's message (not for the first time). His mother has died, the message says. There must be some action to be taken.
Andrew Largeman, the man in the dream, the man in his own dream, caught in his own world and unable to be quite there for the people around him. Much of the movie debates on where he as a man in his late twenties is going: true, he's becoming a rising success in the acting world, but as a person, he's incomplete. Zach Braff, who plays a hilarious clown on TV's "Scrubs" which has been on the air for five years, does a muted interpretation of Largeman. He makes Largeman a shy, soft-spoken guy whom you would probably pass by the street and not notice his presence. Although, thankfully for him, someone does: a young girl who lives in her own awkward sense of freedom named Sam.
Here is where the movie goes into self-conscious cuteness and throws a cursory nod to films like THE GRADUATE. While there are no Mrs. Robinsons to be found here (except in the role Jean Smart plays, but she's only in the movie for about five minutes of screen time and is never to be seen again), Sam has a lot of Elaine in her, but with an MTV feel. She's a free spirit, she loves a group called The Shin, she expresses herself as if she were from her own world, and sure enough -- she also brings life into the lifeless personality of Largeman. Natalie Portman makes this a unique role, though: there is a quirkiness about her that belies a tremendous sensibility which works for the role even when the role, somehow similar to the one Kirsten Dunst played in ELIZABETHTOWN, can be annoying.
GARDEN STATE is also given a look that feels smarter than it is, but this is clever directing, camera angles, style over substance, and honest acting from even the actors in small roles. I have a sneaking feeling this got better reviews than it should have, more so because it's Zach Braff's debut film and while its pacing is a little choppy and there are one too many scenes of overall "cleverness", and completely cops out at the end without a moment's transition, it's a good watch, entertaining, sensitive, and I hope there will be more to come from Braff.