Twenty-seven years after Woody Allen wrote, directed, and starred in the unforgettable Annie Hall, TV’s young “Scrubs” star Zach Braff has attempted to do the same in his own offbeat film, Garden State. And, also like Allen, Braff has succeeded in creating a quirky, original film that speaks to an entire generation.
Filled with a unique dry comedy from the first scene, Garden State opens on Andrew Largeman (Large), a struggling actor/waiter living a disenchanted life in L.A. Large, medicated by his psychiatrist father since childhood, lives a life he doesn’t feel. Braff portrays the numb character with a comic sadness, providing exactly one facial expression that either reacts to events in a delayed, uninterested manner, or doesn’t react at all. This leaves openings for some understated comic moments that slide by the beginning sequence of this movie just as as Large slides through life.
Large’s true journey begins when he returns to his New Jersey home for his mother’s funeral, and simultaneously stops taking his medications. He looks to reconnect with life at home, but finds himself spending time with old high school friends who, if not medicated, are at as emotionally stunted as he is. As a director,
Braff uses Large’s interactions with his friends to show a sense of wandering; a life of partying and directionless drifting that will speak to a whole new generation of recent college graduates set loose in a world where everything should be moving somewhere, but nothing really is.
Floundering in this world between emotional and chemical numbness, locked in a threateningly secret pact of silence with his father, Large randomly meets, one day, Sam. Natalie Portman truly does steal the show as an epileptic compulsive liar who finally shows Large how to open up. Some of Sam’s character foibles almost border on gimmicky, but, like Diane Keaton before her, Portman carries off the leading female role with just the right amount of endearingly quirky charm. It is Sam, and the offbeat group of friends, including stoner/gravedigger Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), who come together to wrap up the comic loose edges of the film.
But the main reason this movie works is because the audience it is targeted to will sympathize with Large. Braff portrays a character who begins as walking cardboard, and then comes to life. To cheer for him as he opens up, and feels pain, and yes, as he falls in love, is inevitable. At times, the emotional baggage portrayed between Large and his father (Ian Hulm) seems like an afterthought to the script, added to give Large yet one more hurdle in his race for emotions. In these father/son scenes, and in these scenes only, does the dialogue seem a little forced and overwrought. As a story line, it seems almost too big for the time allotted to it. And yet, everything Large experiences in the garden state comes together to build a picture of him, finally, as a human being.
With an amazing, award-winning soundtrack, a fantastically understated cast, and a plot brilliant in its honest simplicity, Garden State is a an overall remarkable achievement for first-time director Braff. The story will speak to a generation, but the movie will appeal to all.
Directed by Zach Braff