Top-notch acting and writing; a clever and heart-warming film.

Rating: 9/10 (23 March 2005)

This is one hot film. It popped into IMDb's top 250 virtually overnight at number 187. Nearly one half of the eighteen thousand who voted for it gave it a perfect ten. I'll wager most of them were under 25 years of age. This is a film for the young at heart.
Because of its early release, this film earned no Oscar nominations. If the studio were to have their way, however, young Zach Braff would garner every award they could give, as his $2.5 million-budget film has grossed in excess of $25 million so far in relatively limited release, making Zach one of the most bankable actor/writer/directors in 'Hollywood'.
In the video "The Making of Garden State", 23-year old Natalie Portman said she enjoyed working on a film with other young people. I can add that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a film that displayed so much young energy and enthusiasm for lifealbeit a bit skewed through Zach Braff's eyes.
Zach Braff was heavily influenced by Hal Ashby ("Harold and Maude") and Woody Allen, and he certainly replaces Mr. Allen in the triple-hit category of writer/director/star.
We are no stranger to Zach Braff here in the UK, as the show "Scrubs" premiered on cable/satellite channel Sky One on 17 January 2002. It is a very popular show here.
Besides the wonderful work of Zach Braff as an actor, and the tremendous support provided by Natalie Portmanwho does not enter the film until the 28th minute and manages to steal every scene thereafter!Peter Sarsgaard (the crossbow killer in Unconditional Love) dreamily underplays Mark, modern-day grave robber, and Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins of Lord of the Rings) plays the role of New Jersey father with tremendous poise, and a wonderful American accent.
In Jerry McGuire, Renée Zellweger as loyal secretary Dorothy Boyd says, 'You had me from hello.' I must say that Zach Braff's character Andrew captured my attention from the very first scenes of this film, wherein: a petrol nozzle is still stuck in his car as he arrives at the restaurant where he works in Los Angeles; his airplane is crashing and, whilst other passengers don their oxygen masks, Andrew merely adjusts the air conditioning above him; Andrew is "saluted" by the automatic faucets in the restroom as he walks past; his shirt metaphorically blends with the wallpaper in his mother's bathroom. I was laughing to the point of tears before an actor spoke a single word. Zach had me long before the first 'hello'.
This is the story of a boy coming home to New Jersey for his mother's funeral. Andrew Largeman has been living in Los Angeles, working as an actor/waiter because he likes being other people. Via a phone message from his father/psychiatrist (who has kept Andrew on drugs all his life), Andrew is informed that his mother has diedthat she in fact drowned in her own tub.
Who can miss the Allen-esque humour of the 'medicine cabinet' scene that followsnot just the face split by the mirror, but the immaculately neat rows of medication that line the shelves? Or the scene once he arrives home: a Jewish boy riding a German WWII motorcycle that his grandfather has left him? And while she doesn't speak the exact words from Annie Hall, 'You're what Grammy Hall would call a real Jew' after he has met compulsive liar Sam (Natalie Portman) and given her a ride home, she shows him her most prized possession (besides her dead hamster): Sam: This is Tickle (holding up a rag).
Andrew: What is tickle?
Sam: Tickle's my favourite thing in the whole world. It's all that's left of Nanny, my blanket.
Andrew: What happened? Hurricane?
Sam: Shut up!
Andrew: It's like a Wailing Wall.
Sam: What?
Andrew: The Wailing Wall is the most holy place for Jews to go and pray in Israel. It's all that's left of this enormous temple that was destroyed by the Romans.
Sam: So you're like really Jewish? You are!
Andrew: What? I don't do anything Jewish. I don't go to temple, or anything. I don't know any Jews who go to temple.
Like Woody Allen, always explaining away his Jewishness, Zach has his character Andrew fall for a shiksa, a non-Jewish girl.
By the way, Natalie Portman was Zach's first pick to play the role of Sam; and she seems to be the perfect shiksa for any Jewish boy, as she was born in Israel.
Andrew comes home to find his friends only a little changed; Mark is a gravedigger/grave robber at the Jewish cemetery, Kenny (the guy who once sniffed coke off a urinal) has become a cop, and Jesse is now a millionaire after "the man" bought his patent for silent Velcro.
"Garden State" is a warm romance, punctuated with outrageous visualsa leg-humping seeing-eye dog, a masturbating terrier, a graveyard of pets, an armoured friend from Medieval Times Restaurant (He's just a fast-food knight) who's making it with Mark's mother (Jean Smart) Oh, and if you're a John Ritter fan, you will see that Zach brings John's face back to life every time he deadpans the camera.
Let me leave you with the line that I believe best sums up this charming film.
When Sam tells Andrew that she has to wear a funny helmet to work because she suffers from epilepsy, he asks, 'What part are we laughing about again?' Sam answers: 'If you can't laugh at yourself, life is going to seem a whole lot longer than you'd like.'