Review of Garden State (2004) by Max A — 11 Apr 2016

I've been waiting to see this movie ever since I got hooked on the soundtrack back in 2007. It's finally available on VidAngel and I was really excited to see this quirky story I had followed and youtubed.

Maybe it was because of being very indie and low budget, or maybe because it was Zach Braff's first attempt at writing and directing, but the movie had a lot of lost potential.

I found the overall concept to be very interesting. A 26 year old man has been wrongfully medicated since he was 10 and been completely numb to emotion because of it. His mom dies and he goes home to the funeral and doesn't take his medication while there, and begins to finally feel these lost emotions that he's been missing out on. If I were a producer and someone pitched that idea alone to me, I'd be captivated and hooked. Then, adding Natalie Portman as the nerdy, epileptic, pathological liar love interest to counter the weirdness of the protagonist....it's a great combo and they had good chemistry. For people being so used to seeing Natalie playing roles where she's awesome, this is a great role for her stepping outside of her comfort zone.

Anyway, halfway through the movie the plot took a turn and on the "last day" Zach Braff's character is in town it just goes downhill, almost like they didn't know how to make a good ending and just did a normal one.

Back to the concept of a medicated numb man finally experiencing emotion, I felt like there could have been a number of shots showing him finally coming up for air during these experiences when he is finally feeling again and crying, yet we don't see that. We see scenes showing how numb he is at the beginning of the movie, but none conveying the transformation.

In short....Garden State = Average movie. Amazing soundtrack.