Contemporary, interesting and stereotypical!

Rating: 7/10 (6 December 2007)

This is a very good film; it's a film that will speak to a generation of people. Predominantly those in their late teens to early 20s, those that feel alienated, different and to those that feel every personal problem can only be likened to a nuclear holocaust. It is for a section of contemporary youth who believe that a late assignment, a failed relationship or an untidy bedroom are on a similar level to Andrew Largemen's (Zach Braff) issues of being prescribed mind bending/altering medication since the age of 11, crippling your own mother and the guilt trip encompassing her death. The clichés of modern youth are played out with almost every character through them having either an OCD or some kind of neurotic condition e.g. Sam (Natalie Portman) is a compulsive liar and plain strange, there's the man who's obsessed with pyramid schemes, Sam's brother who becomes so upset when somebody urinates on his console he dusts for fingerprints, the man that works in a Medieval-themed restaurant and wears his armour home and the man who became rich by inventing silent Velcro.
Garden State is a good old fashioned exploitation film as it stereotypes the youth of today, it places them in a corner and tells them that even the most damaged and confused of you can find happiness in the end. Luckily in some quarters this is how people saw the film although other quarters will feel it speaks directly to them (a common attribute of exploitation films; look at Bridget Jones for a prime example). I feel that Garden State is not a parody of itself, but a parody of the audience it's trying to connect with exemplified by what I've already written and the amount of quirkiness on screen, it is almost admitting to itself that the audience might have an ADD  another stereotype of today's youth.
Overall the film is quirky, prime examples being the scenes of a young couple living in a boat in a quarry, a hamster graveyard and Andrew's means of transport. It is also stylish with its cleverly filmed swimming pool scene (depicts Andrew's isolation brilliantly), its party scene and the bleak ending. Garden State is well acted (Portman is Brilliant, best role since Leon) and well directed and it deserves top marks for being the first outing by Zach Braff as a film director, writer and star but not for being a film that's so untrue to itself.