Garden State

Plot synopsis:
Struggling actor Andrew Largeman (Braff) wakes up from a dream—in which he apathetically sits on a crashing plane—to a telephone message from his father (Holm), telling Andrew that he needs to return home because his mother has died.
Andrew leaves Los Angeles and returns home to New Jersey to attend the funeral. He recognizes the grave-diggers as old friends Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) and Dave (Alex Burns), who invite him to a party that night. At home, his father gets Andrew a doctor's appointment for headaches he's been having.
Later that night, Andrew goes to the party where he meets up with Mark, Dave, and Jesse (Armando Riesco), an old friend who has just earned a fortune after creating silent Velcro. After smoking marijuana and taking ecstasy at the party he still remains detached.
The morning after the party, Andrew proceeds to the appointment. In the waiting room, he meets a young woman named Sam (Portman), who is a pathological liar. She later explains that most times she does not know why she lies and will always admit to them afterward. In Andrew's meeting with his doctor (Ron Leibman), it is revealed that Andrew has been on lithium and other mood stabilizers, as well as antidepressants, for his entire adult life, but has recently stopped taking them. He also says that his father, who is his psychiatrist, put him on the medication. Andrew finds Sam outside the office and offers her a ride home. Sam invites him into her house, and he meets her mother, who inadvertently reveals that Sam has epilepsy. Andrew tells Sam of his mother's death, and Sam tearfully eulogizes her hamster. After returning home, Andrew's father confronts him and is insistent that they have a talk before Andrew leaves.
Later, Andrew and Jesse sit in the cemetery as Mark digs another grave. Andrew observes Mark stealing jewelry from the corpse he is burying. Andrew then returns to Sam's house, and the two spend the rest of the day together, joining his friends later at Jesse's mansion. Andrew tells Sam that he pushed his mother in frustration when he was nine years old, knocking her over a broken dishwasher in an accident that left her paraplegic; he says that his father blames him for his wife's paralysis and put him on his medications to "curb the anger" he supposedly harbors. Sam listens, and Andrew then admits his feelings for her.
The next day, Mark tells Andrew that he needs help "tracking down" a going-away present for him. Sam, Andrew, and Mark spend the day together, ending it in a quarry in Newark where Mark talks to a man named Albert (Denis O'Hare), who is employed in keeping intruders out of the quarry. The three visitors discuss the reasons for which Albert and his wife choose to live in the quarry. Albert explains that living there and exploring the quarry is "doing something that's completely unique, that's never been done before," mirroring an earlier speech by Sam. Finally, Albert explains that what actually matters is living with his family. Andrew is inspired by the conversation, and outside in the rain, he climbs atop a derelict crane and screams into the quarry, joined by Sam and Mark. He and Sam then share a kiss.
When Sam and Andrew look at the gift later on, it turns out to be Andrew's mother's favorite pendant, one of the items Mark stole from her grave, sold, and subsequently located. Andrew eventually talks with his father, and states that he was not to blame for his mother's accident and that he will live the rest of his life without medications. He forgives his father and says he wants to build a better relationship with him.
The morning after, Andrew says his goodbyes to Sam at the airport, while she begs him not to leave. He acknowledges that she has changed his life but that he still has to fix his personal problems before continuing the relationship. Andrew boards the flight, and Sam is left crying in a telephone booth. Andrew then returns, saying that he doesn't want to waste any more of his life without Sam. He wonders what to do next, and the two then kiss.

Tags: psychological, realism, cult, atmospheric, psychedelic, autobiographical, romantic, entertaining, storytelling, home movie

Review:
Zach Braff's "Garden State" manages to accomplish something that very few films have been able to do throughout the history of cinema.
Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff)) has been away from his hometown of New Jersey for the past nine years and returns to attend the funeral for his mother.
From there the plot grows as he connects with old friends and makes new ones and discovers the joys of life and love mostly thanks to the arrival of free-spirited Sam (Natalie Portman).
I don't think I will ever forget Natalie Portman's dancing in her bedroom - just to be 'unique' or Zach Braff's touching comments about what makes a 'home' in the swimming pool.Even those touching moments were funny; the fact that he couldn't swim!As a mid twenty-something, This film really spoke to me.
It should surprise no one who has ever watched Scrubs that his performance keeps the movie together; or that he is able to create a jokey, distant, somewhat sarcastic character who also elicits real empathy from the audience and manages to emanate deep wounds.
The entire scene where Sam and Andrew talk in his friend's pool has some great shots, and Braff's comedic flair and timing are evident in his directing style, which still manages to pull back for the more dramatic and poignant moments.I urge you to see this movie.
Then he meets a girl, well acted indeed by Natalie Portman, who unlocks him slowly, saying the right things all the time without knowing it.Hours after you've seen this, you realize that here was a crucial moment, this was a turning point and so on.
Zach was lucky enough to have two of the very best young actors starring in his movie: Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard.
I feel though that this is not a result of a specific film styling but rather poor writing on the part of Zach Braff, who, mind you, is not the Epstein brothers (of Casablanca fame) but rather a TV actor who is breaking into the big screen for the first time.
When he then has an epiphany at the end of the film, a terribly contrived moment, he praddles off everything that he already knew as if it were terribly profound, and the moment entirely misses.Also, characters, specifically Large, seem to go off on philosophical tangents which are neither profound nor insightful, but seem to be what he really wants the audience to derive from his movie.
In this classic case of "Telling" instead of "showing," I personally was annoyed as I felt that as an intelligent viewer I didn't need to be spoon-fed these ideas but rather, as in any well-written movie or literary piece, could have derived them from the work itself without them being thrown into my face.Please keep in mind that this was something of a Devil's advocate opinion as I did enjoy parts of the film, and certainly recommend it above most of the other films in theaters now..
GARDEN STATE a film by Zach Braff.What ever happened to the BREAKFAST CLUB kids?
Something that opens musically with COLDPLAY can not possibly go wrong and it doesn't, gets even better when we are introduced to the song "that will change your life, I promise" or so says Sam (NATALIE PORTMAN), I'm not sure if somethings can be change that easy but certainly will have you running to buy the soundtrack when the credits roll, the song NEW SLANG...
Where the picture is lacking is in Zach Braff's script, which seems mostly culled from situations taken from other movies.When you're as young as Braff is, you haven't really lived enough to use the experience as film fodder.
In Garden State, he plays Andrew Largeman, a semi-successful Hollywood actor who returns to his hometown in New Jersey to bury his mother, who took her own life after suffering in a wheelchair for many years.
None of them even recognize him from his TV role as the "retarded quarterback" (Natalie Portman's character, the most aware person in the movie, does), and say things, like "Hey, I remember you from Junior year".
Then he meets Sam (Natalie Portman) a sort-of lost girl, who gives pet funerals and lives with her mother like a 10-year-old in a bedroom that looks like a pink doll house blown up to life size.
In one scene, Braff and Portman are in the millionaire kid's house, playing touchy-feely is front of a giant fireplace, and the bit is so routine, so standard movie-schtick, I swear, I half-expected somebody to walk up and throw a sled into the fire.
He has the right sort of vacancy, of casual acceptance to make his role as the zonked-out Andrew both real and poignant, and Natalie Portman (also of Beautiful Girls) gives the movie a big lift.
I'm sure some readers of the Guardian (lefty UK newspaper) will enjoy it, but that's by no means a recommendation...It started off a bit 'Grosse Point Blank' like (although that is clearly a great movie), then it descended into a poor man's 'Lost in Translation'.
Zach Braff, who plays the main character, gives a terrific performance portraying a disturbed, puzzled young man, who is searching for something in life.
I cannot imagine anyone over the age of 17 actually falling for this drivel.I felt no emotional attachment to any of the characters.The film ended with me wondering what Ian Holm and Natalie Portman actually saw in this project; both actors plodding through an unreadable script.
Apart from the cloying pretension of the entire script, the hamfisted metaphors, the often frighteningly amateurish acting, and the fact that Zach Braff apparently thinks gazing emptily into the camera communicates some soul-stirring information on the nature of the character he plays, this film is very poorly done even on the most basic levels of film-making.
I really didn't feel like Zach Braff had earned the right to have his character say, "You changed my life," to Natalie Portman at the end of the film.
Also, absolutely too many scenes were dominated by fast-motion camera effects and super-hip indie music.If Zach Braff makes another movie - either a more focused love story or a less focused, existentialist-about-town story - he could hit gold.
His return home causes him to examine his life even though he still cannot really feel anything; it also allows him to hook up with old friends as well as meeting new ones  namely the beautiful but strange Sam.It is perhaps ironic that the same qualities that attracted me to this film were the same qualities that I felt weakened it as a total film: these qualities were that it appeared a bit kooky and introspective.
I knew it wasn't going anywhere when a scene between Braff and his father that starts with the elder Largeman appearing behind the fridge door, showed the two characters talking about having yet another talk later on in the film.
Being Zach Braff's debut movie, the film does share some comedic style as Scrubs, but slightly more subtle.
Some scenes would just not be the same without the music.Overall, Zach Braff does a great job in delivering the message of "living" through this movie in an entertaining way..
Were I given the ability to write, direct, and star in a film at the age of fourteen, it probably would have turned out quite the carbon copy of Garden State.Ian Holm is forced into a role that is so shallow and static that it could have been performed by any older male with ability to frown.
You WANT to love her, which judging by the rest of the characters, is directly her fault and not that of the writer/director.With the trite teen comedy/romance ending, this film rapes any further indie dignity it seems to carry, but if you were a discerning viewer it came as no surprise.
Oh well, I guess that's how the Academy Awards work anyhow.I won't say Garden State is entirely a feel-good movie either.
Even though TV actor Zach Braff writes, directs, and stars in *Garden State*, I suppose we really ought to blame Dustin Hoffman for it, for *The Graduate* hangs heavily over this movie, like a self-obsessed pall.
It is hard to see why Braff's character falls for her at all, and there seems to be zero chemistry.It all feels so contrived, and the movie itself plummets deeper and deeper into this false, smug, faux-indie, supposedly earnest dialogue and forced sentiment until the final, over-the-top, very very familiar father and son talk scene, which really takes the cake.
Some scenes with some coldplay/Keane music in the background don't make a movie artistic.I have the feeling that I know what director and writer Zach Braff wanted to do, but he failed by wanting it too much.
Garden State is an entertaining and downright visually stunning piece of film-making by Zach Braff.
Braff himself plays 26-year old Andrew 'Large' Largeman, a man kept in the state of a spaced out kid via heavy doses of lithium prescribed by his psychiatrist father.A trip back home, to New Jersey - America's Garden State, from LA for his mother's funeral serves as an excuse to leave the pills at home, while hooking up, somewhat non-committally, with old college mates starts off as a route to pills of another sort.But the 'slacker-may-care' attitude of drugs, driving and doggy-paddle can't quite ring true when presumably in a state of lithium withdrawal Large makes his declaration of love to the compulsive liar, epileptic Sam (Natalie Portman in her first real post-puberty role).Something seems to have been lost in the transatlantic translation process, as far from being a 2004 take on the Dazed and Confused mindset what comes over clearest is a set of well crafted cinematic images inside a cobweb of a plot following an indie cool agenda to tackle love, hate, relationships, ambition and the difficulty of actually feeling the events that life throws at us all.While Large's dependence on anti-depressants, his best friend's decision to take the cocaine option to small town living and the new love of his life's epilepsy, to reduce Garden State to a picture purely about managing life via drugs is admittedly a little harsh.What Braff's brave writer/director/star showpiece loses in a weak storyline he more than makes up with a keen eye for what images shine on the screen.
But a crane shot of a swimming pool, a swooping shot of a possibly bottomless ravine and a blazing open fire in an unfurnished ballroom give strong hope for what Braff might deliver if given the right material, and possibly if he were to drop some responsibility and take a step behind the camera.To say that the journey of Garden State's 26-year old 'hero' offers a radically different set of footsteps to another young man who's life is also playing out in cinemas at the moment (Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator) would be to kick at a dangerous wasps nest of the differences between the aspirations of two very different eras.
I never had an IMDb account until I read some of the user submitted reviews on here which dramatically moved me to inject a degree of sense into the apparently helpless minds on here.Garden State is a touching, emotional and above all else REAL film that apparently lacks a certain degree of message and pace for the people obviously incensed at having not 'got' the film first time around and desire to verbally bash it.The simple low budget poignancy of its narrative about the embracing of life and shedding the fear of what else may come from it is something relevant and brilliantly done by Braff's slow, focused and apt script and direction.
When half of the films out of Hollywood lead us to believe that one can only achieve happiness through epic quests and magic, subtle works of art like Garden State exist to remind us that life is in fact wonderful.
I have never been a fan of Natalie Portman and I haven't liked her in any of her films (that I'd seen) with the exception of 'Cold Mountain' but here she took me by surprise as she's excellent as the vivacious Sam. I hope she does more such good work as she has shown that she can indeed act.
Even though Zach Braff was one of the few debuting young directors who DID receive some recognition and praising reviews for his "Garden State", a large majority of film fanatics still hasn't discovered it.
On the contrary, the script's subtle sense of humor and the beautiful characterizations resuscitates hope and happiness!Yes, "Garden State" is a very good film and Zach Braff surely knows which way he's going in the movie business.
Beautiful movie who will be most appreciated by people who are going trough the same stage in life as Braff's character...,.
"Garden State" is a movie about a young guy, wonderfully played by the young and multi-talented Zach Braff, who comes home for his mother's funeral.
"We may not always be as happy as you always dreamed we'd be, but for once, let's just allow ourselves to be whatever it is we are." This is just one of the many beautiful and heartbreaking quotes the movie contains.It's unbelievable how a young man like Zach Braff can write, direct and take the leading role all by himself.
the dialogue was, at times, truly atrocious, lines so bad that i cringed and my brain refuses to recall them.i have to add also that i did NOT like natalie portman for the role-- her voice was just annoying, and her performance didn't match her character-- i couldn't keep from feeling she was self-consciously reading her lines, especially in the early part of the movie.
The characters they played resemble (maybe not exactly, but close) people who are near and dear to us in our own lives and although their stories may not be exactly like the ones seen in "Garden State," they still provide life lessons and that was what the whole movie was about...life.For those of you who bashed the movie and said it was "doody," give it another try.
If only the entire thing had been that well-written.So see this movie for good performances from Peter Sarrsgard and Natalie Portman.
Zach Braff's directorial debut, 'Garden State' gives us the story of Andrew Largeman, a thinly employed L.A. actor whose mother dies, leading him to visit his home state of New Jersey to attend her funeral.
He spends several days hanging out with his friends and avoiding his father, all in search for deeper meaning in his life.For a first time directing effort, Braff did a pretty good job with 'Garden State'.
Peter Sarsgaard is excellent as always, giving depth and meaning to a character even when the script is weak.On the negative side, the dialog is embarrassingly bad, and some of the scenes (the one involving the hotel comes to mind) seem like they belong in another film.
But most importantly this film makes me smile.Garden State is the directing debut of Zach Braff and is a big hit in my books, it has witty dialogue, memorable scene and very powerful speeches and moments.
The cast is impressive; Zach Braff, who also wrote and directed, does a fine job as Andrew and Natalie Portman is very likeable as Sam. Overall I'd recommend this to people not requiring action and obvious gags but wanting a gentler, 'real' film..
Then he meets his antithesis, a 20-something girl (Natalie Portman) whose range of emotion is somewhere between very amused and insanely happy.It's the delightful contrast between these 2 characters, and their great on-screen chemistry, that turns an otherwise brooding sarcastic comedy into a really entertaining treat.Another thing that really defines this film is the way every character, even the minor ones who only have 1 scene, are so bizarre and interesting that you feel like an entire movie spinoff could be made of each one.
On the one hand there are some good things about it, quality moments where you really empathise with Zach Braff's character and his feelings.
I really like how Zach Braff directed and wrote this movie.
It's simply a pretty good movie about life.+Chemistry between Braff & Portman +No genre +Relatable life situations-Ending falls flat -One note dad character 7.7/10.
He reconnects with an old friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), and new girl Sam (Natalie Portman).Written and directed by Zach Braff, this is a very impressive big screen debut for him.
I personally liked the movie Garden State.
After this incident, Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) goes to his mother's funeral and the next day meets a really nice girl named Sam (Natalie Portman) which he falls in love with.I am not a fanatic of movies, but this movie presents a story that could be happening right now to many other people.
After meeting Sam, Andrew starts to change, he seems to be happier and for the first time he starts to fall in love with a girl.The thing I least liked about this movie is that it is always the same story, a guy finds a girl, the girl changes his life and they end up being falling in love.
Zach Braff directs and stars in the 2004 dramedy "Garden State".
The movie follows the story of a a 26-year-old actor/waiter (Braff) who returns to his hometown in New Jersey after his mother dies.
First off, for a first-time attempt at directing a film, Zach Braff does an incredible job.
"Garden State" concerns Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), a young man who returns home for his mother's funeral after a long estrangement from his family.
It is a girl he has just met who changes everything, who opens Andrew up to the possibilities of finally finding out who he really is and living a life all his own.This is a coming of age story with great charm and the most credit for that of course goes to Zach Braff.