After Woody: The comedy of neurosis has a new talent

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2005)

Fresh, tender, quirky and genuine, the adjectives just want to pour forth to describe this marvelous romantic comedy/coming-of-age story. First time writer-director Zach Braff also stars as Andrew, a 25 year old, marginally employed actor in LA who returns home to New Jersey for his mother's funeral.
Andrew hasn't been around his old friends or seen much of his father since he was sent off to boarding school at 16. Several disparate forces move Andrew now to rethink his life. The film concerns these developments that will reshape his future. The first, of course, is the death of Andrew's mother. We never meet her but learn that she had been rendered paraplegic years earlier, when she fell in the kitchen, after being pushed by an angry 9 year old Andrew.
Plagued by poorly controlled emotions after that (what kid wouldn't be?), Andrew was placed on medications to blunt his moods by his psychiatrist father (Ian Holm, in a minor role), and had remained emotionally numbed by meds for the past 15 years. He was dispatched to boarding school for the same reason, we also learn, to decompress the emotional angst in the family household. Amazingly, we are informed of Andrew's past without resort to a single flashback.
Dissatisfied with the course of his career and life in LA, Andrew decides to stop taking his mood stabilizing medication upon learning of his mother's death. Back in the suburb where he grew up, reunions with old chums now contribute to Andrew's unfolding self reappraisal.
More importantly, he meets Samantha  Sam (Natalie Portman), an inquisitive young woman who seems to care about and accept him from the getgo. In the end it is the budding romance with Sam that catalyses Andrew's resolve to change his life. But this could not have occurred without him freeing himself of the enormous burden of guilt for causing his mother's paralysis, a burden only made worse by his father's misguided "treatment" of Andrew's non-existent mood disorder and his virtual banishment from the family. He confronts his father about these matters in one of the film's more moving scenes.
Among several reasons why this film works so well, perhaps the most important is the lack of schmaltz. There is not a single note of over-the-top melodrama or pathos here. No shouting or screaming. We are never insulted by any belaboring of the obvious psychological nuances in play.
Braff writes with respect for the intelligence of his audience. Many little scenes and plot twists delight because they are unexpected gifts. The off key pop solo sung by Andrew's aunt at Mother's funeral. Various people living in odd circumstances.
One old buddy got rich selling his invention of soundless Velcro and now trundles down the corridors of his unfurnished McMansion in a golf cart. Another buddy, Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), sells jewelry he acquires in a highly unusual manner. Braff also writes simple yet refreshing dialogue, with plenty of offbeat humor, yet none of it is strained, nothing is played self-consciously for laughs.
Braff himself has a warm, easy-to-watch screen presence. He can say nothing during the lull in a conversation, while the camera remains focused on his face, and it feels right. Portman and Sarsgaard are also genuine, each wonderfully relaxed in their roles. Production design is superb: details in every scene are arranged well, and the photography, by Lawrence Sher, is - like the story and the acting  unpretentious, never distracting, tricky or cute.
This film never seems to manipulate us; instead it engages us, arouses our curiosity and amusement, bids us gently to care about Andrew and Sam and even Mark, leaving us entertained in the best sense. This movie is as confident, as secure in itself, as comforting, as a well worn pair of house slippers or your favorite reading chair. A splendid film. My rating: 8.5/10 (A-). (Seen on 09/09/04). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.