Review of Garden State (2004) by Coleman M — 31 Mar 2015
God, where do I start? This film is terrible, just awful. true, there are some chuckle-worthy moments and I can definitely relate to some parts of the film (Not being able to cry at funerals and feeling terrible about it, Seeing your hometown as boring, lame, and dead.
Seeing your old friends grow up to either do nothing or become something you never thought they would be or just isn't them. Feeling lost, adrift, and aimless), if the film was actually about a guy doing some soul searching.
...maybe it would have been good. It likes to pretend thats what it's about but it's really just a generic, bland, rom-com-dram (It likes to pretend that it's deeper than it actually is. It's also downright harmful as it seems to encourage people to stop taking their meds.
). Natalie Portman's Sam is easily one of the worst, most unrealistic, and most annoying and grating females in film (She is a manic pixie dream girl on coke, and I don't mean the soda. I really wanted someone to shoot her point blank in the face).
It's also really annoying that one of the main themes is wanting to do something original and unique that no one has ever done before (This is brought up twice). Get the fuck over yourself Braff. Zach Braff's Andrew doesn't fare a whole lot better than Sam does as he is almost a non-prescence in the film.
You don't ever really feel any emotion towards him as he is an apathetic, extremely depressed man. He's the focal point of our story, but kind of just wanders around. He never really adds anything to the plot, or even does anything.
He's the human equivalent of wallpaper, he just kind of blends into the background for the whole film. The film is very quirky, like through the roof quirky.....to the point where it starts to make you nauseous.
I also found it downright insulting that the film seems to imply that all you really need is a girl, and that a man is defined by the girl he's with. Topped off with a fairly awful soundtrack, Garden State offers little for anyone.
SKIP IT!
This review of Garden State (2004) was written by Coleman M on 31 Mar 2015.
Garden State has generally received very positive reviews.
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