A very lovely and unconventional debut by a writer/director I'd now like to see more of

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2013)

Not many movies are made with such enthusiasm as Zach Braff's directorial debut, Garden State. Shot during a very few weeks of break from the sitcom that made him famous, the sympathetic young New Jerseyan - ah, now you get the movie's title - was likely still too stunned that he managed to get Hollywood VIPs Natalie Portman, Ian Holm, and Peter Sarsgaard to star in his first (and last, up to the present day) cinematic project to waste a thought on possible critical or commercial acclaim the movie would turn out to receive in abundance. And now, more than ten years after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2004, Garden State hasn't lost one bit of its popularity. Neither the cult following it garnered nor that the gross would be fourteen times as much as the budget were foreseen by any movie expert. Interestingly though, the reason for it is as logical as anything: the genuine emotions Braff had put into every single part of the making of this movie are transferred onto the audience and one can't help but feel happy while watching it. And that's outstanding film-making.
Written autobiographically to some 80% according to Braff, the great script is the indispensable foundation for the success of Garden State. The relatable difficulties the down-to-earth characters have to face together with absurdist humor only slightly less weird than the daydreams in Scrubs, make Garden State as special as it is. The simple plot about a fairly unsuccessful young actor who returns to his hometown after his mom has died and is confronted with emotions for the first time in his life when he meets a charismatic peer in the doctor's office is spiced up by several moments of brilliancy in writing and unpaid actors, a dozen times more engaged than their highly salaried colleagues in other romantic comedies. And another part any but halfway attentive viewer should definitely have perceived is the fantastic, Grammy-winning soundtrack. Before even sending the screenplay to the actors he had in mind, Zach Braff had already hand-picked the 13 indie tracks ranging from The Shins over Simon & Garfunkel to Colin Hay. The importance of every single one of those songs is unmistakable and they seem to have been made for the exact scene in which they are used in the movie.
This all sums up to a movie that isn't the funniest, the most touching, or the most realistic, yet a lovely and rememberable mixture of all three. I thought that some of the scenes, especially the first scene at the house of Natalie Portman's character, were over-the-top and just didn't hit my sense of humor, but that's fine since the ones that made me smile were definitely predominant. Zach Braff proves to not only have a talent for acting, but also writing and directing and until he finally releases a new movie, we'll have to content ourselves with watching Garden State over and over again - something that I am very keen on doing.