gets under your skin (**tiny spoiler**)

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2004)

Garden State gets under your skin. I don't know how, but from a series of almost random vignettes on the lives of flawed but likable characters there emerges an initially almost indiscernible thread that entwines with others, even more invisible, into a strong and definite theme, punctuated by a lovely ellipsis that closes the story and at the same time opens it up.
This movie is proof, if any were needed, that there is virtue in merging writer and director; certainly at the level of this kind of movie, whose character would probably have been lost or diluted by spreading the job of implementing its vision. All in all, a lovely piece of story- telling: one of the few that merits being called 'character-driven'.