Alright, Although a Little Boring

Rating: 5/10 (9 June 2005)

Going into Garden State, I was expecting something very special, after seeing all the praise the movie had received. Afterwards though, I was left feeling disappointed and actually unsurprised. Do not get me wrong, Garden State is a film that has a lot of appeal to it. It contains a lot of feeling that a young viewer can relate to; it has comic bits here and there; it even has Method Man! The unfortunate thing that Garden State seemed to have going for it though (for me at least) was just the dull pacing the movie had. It also seemed to cash in too much on the 'emotions' category and did not do enough to stick with the comedy routine. At the start the movie had a 'subtle humor' feel to it, but by the second fourth of it rolls around, all of the humor is gone. You are left then with a person hanging around in his hometown, making you feel like you are having a regular weekend off from college/high school. Nevertheless, that may have something to do with why it is liked so much.
The dialogue in the movie seemed a little unnatural at times (far too much swearing, inappropriate comments here and there.) The main thing that annoyed me was the running gag with Andrew every time he met someone. They would say: "HOLY ****!", which became both predictable and very tiring by the end. Some might find the joke to be very amusing, but relying on swearing as a joke can get rather annoying hard and fast. Otherwise, the script seemed to have a good handle on lots of casual conversations. What got me the most the most though with the dialogue though was the epic 'confrontation' that Andrew was going to have with his in-movie father. It ended up coming across as rather un-eventful, un-detailed, and there did not seem to be a very solid resolution emanating from it.
Andrew's relationship with Sam was also a little unrealistic if you ask me. It felt like another throwback to Titanic, with the way it just sprung up and blossomed in a very short period of time. That was probably the main thing there to appeal to the emotions, and it is only a ~2 hour movie so this is probably excusable in the end.
However, as I said, although I did not like it, I can understand why it is liked. That does not mean you will or will not like it though. I suggest you do see it at least once. Natalie Portman does do a good job at acting out the flakiest girl that I have ever seen. In addition, Zack's character is probably one of the most laid back I have ever seen. In the end though, it felt like just another teen movie for some reason with a lot of "trendy" (but fitting) music.