“I wanted to make a smart love story for young people, and I wanted to make a movie that got across the genuine feeling of what it’s like to come home,” said writer-director Zach Braff of his funny and heartfelt feature debut, “Garden State.” Had he the chutzpah to add something about wanting to make a movie that deserves serious consideration come award-season (at the very least, in the best screenplay category), well, I’d enthusiastically report that Braff has hit a triple. Hell, give ‘em an extra base and make it a home run. Don’t let the sports metaphor throw you off, however, as this is a movie about a young man who, when we meet him, isn’t game for very much.
Andrew Largeman (Braff, star of the NBC sitcom “Scrubs”) is a television actor ensconsed somewhere near the bottom of Hollywood’s D-list. Thanks to a lithium dependency that dates back to his pre-pubescence, the 26-year-old New Jersey native is insentient almost to the point of nihility. After the death of his mother brings him back to the Garden State for the first time in nine years, Large — with the help of a free-spirited young woman named Sam (Natalie Portman) and a former high school acquaintance turned burnt-out gravedigger (Peter Sarsgaard) — kicks the pill habit and uncorks the bottle that had held his emotions for so long. His reawakening leads to a long-overdue confrontation with his glacial psychiatrist father (Ian Holm) and to the realization that, axioms be damned, you really can go home again. Quirky, with pitch-perfect performances from a fantastic young cast and a soundtrack that melds contemporary and classic cool (Nick Drake, The Shins, Remy Zero), “Garden State” feels much like a Wes Anderson film … with a little Ted Demme thrown in for good measure. It’s certainly a welcome diversion from all that cacophonous summer noise at the multiplex. (Rated R for language, drug use and a scene of sexuality. Running time: 109 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 30, 2004. Read the original PDF.