Movie Reviews

After the first fifteen minutes or so of Zach Braff's Garden State, I was dreading that it would turn out to be one of those 'edgy' independent comedy-dramas in which all of the characters are jerks, and no-one is particularly likeable (see here, here, or here for examples of this). The film opens as Andrew Largeman (Braff, also the director and writer) returns to the town he grew up in to attend his mother's funeral. Sure enough, all his old high school friends are unlikeable idiots, his dad is cold and distant, and Andrew's own lazy placidity made him a little annoying. It wasn't a promising start.

But then Sam (Natalie Portman) shows up, and things start to change, both for Andrew and Sam, and for the tone of the film. "Garden State" is a nice title for the movie, because I think it accurately and intentionally reflects how Andrew and Sam's lives 'come into bloom', so to speak, when they meet each other and begin their relationship. And it's a weird relationship, too, because Sam is a really weird girl -- but she's a good kind of weird, the kind of weird that I think a lot of people wish that they themselves could be: completely at ease and confident with herself, and free of any inhibitions.

Garden State feels pretty at ease and confident with itself, too. Zach Braff proves that he's a very good writer/director, and the film doesn't feel like the first-time effort that it is. It's funny, moving, and romantic (but in a weird kind of way!), and it's an excellent little film.