Garden State (2004)

OK, first off I'm a baby boomer. If this is the generation of the 80s, I'm troubled. It did start slowly, as others have mentioned. And it did get cheesy at the end. There were good moments and I did watch it all the way through to see how it was resolved. But that's the problem, it could have been a very good movie, a few clicks better, if had NOT been resolved. Andrew should have left, and left us to figure out how it might be resolved. I feel like they caved to the money and added a sappy 'happy' ending. A good try but it's shortfalls were very noticeable. And that's exactly why I worry. Those that claim this as a generation movie need to step back and evaluate a little more objectively.

In one word, I would describe this movie as boring. I could not wait for it to end and kept checking how many minutes were remaining. I don't think a good movie is supposed to make you do that. Basically, the characters are shallow, one dimensional, incredibly boring, walking clichés. From the try-hard, self- absorbed, pill-popping emo main character, to the supporting characters who are uninteresting losers belonging in a trailer park and the love interest who is trying so hard to be individualistic and original, she is basically cramming it down your throat. In case you didn't get the message she wants to be super original, she tells you she likes to make random noises and movements that no one has ever done before so she can go down in history as being the only person on the planet to do said random movement and noise. And this is supposed to be so endearing that main character emo goes from feeling nothing to falling for her and changing his whole life in the space of 2 days. Somebody get me a bucket. If you want to watch a character who is actually individualistic and original, watch Amelie (note she doesn't tell you at any point in that movie that she is trying to be individualistic or original). This movie is supposedly a statement about my generation. If that's really the case then I guess I'm supposed to yell out into an "infinite abyss" and tell someone I'm breaking up with that this isn't a period, it's an ellipsis and then throw up a bit in my mouth. That airport scene where she was sobbing in the payphone booth and he comes back for her was so cheesy, it literally made me gag. This is not some big love. We watched two uninteresting, unlikeable characters we don't care about get to know each other for 2 days. There was no profound love story that warrants such a sappy conclusion. It's ironic that a movie trying to be so indie ends up concluding like a cliché romcom, some guy chasing girl at airport and declaring his love to her. Pretty sure 99% of romcoms end this way and at least the script writers in those movies put in a bit more effort to write a story with a beginning, middle and end. In summary, there is no character development, and the plot is basically some guy returning to his home town after 9 years and apparently everyone treats him as if he never left and they are the best of friends, even though when he left, they were all teenagers. His friends are losers and they all hang around doing boring, loser things, and then love interest tags along to also do boring, loser things. The emo was on medication but he doesn't want to be anymore, because he wants to feel stuff now that he has met original individualistic love interest. The whole plot centres on him accidentally paralysing his mother as a kid and his father having him on mind altering medication since. Considering this was the whole story, they probably should have spent more than 30 seconds on it in total (there's literally 15 seconds screen time with the father all up, and another 15 seconds of him telling the story of his past). If the whole premise is based on this, then Braff really should have fleshed it out a bit more, instead of just having all the characters hanging around doing boring, loser things for the other 101.5 minutes of the movie. The end result is we aren't given the opportunity to care about the main character's past, his present or whether things work out for him in the future and we are bored out of our minds for the majority of the movie wondering why we aren't doing something more interesting with our time. Even with a better plot (or the existence of a plot) the characters really need to be far more interesting for this movie to be even remotely watchable. Why this is so well rated, even by critics will go down in history as one of life's great, unsolvable mysteries.

I wasn't even sure if I should write this review as I struggled to come up with words to describe it. On the one hand there are some good things about it, quality moments where you really empathise with Zach Braff's character and his feelings. The movie really well captures the numbness of depression. And on the opposite spectrum I really liked Natalie Portman's character as she brought a lot of energy to it. There are some funny scenes and interesting characters but after a while the quirkiness becomes old and stale. Just being random doesn't make it funny.But there is a profound emptiness that comes upon me when I think about the Garden State. It left me feeling nothing, as if I had forgotten half the film and now struggled to remember what was good about it. The film's better moments don't come together to a satisfying whole and the plot just feels unfinished.Overall this is by no means a bad film. But it's one of those movies that you watch when there is nothing better on. It's satisfying as long as you don't expect too much.

I had looked forward to seeing this film for a while, but come away disappointed that I didn't get more out of what looked like a promising, thoughtful movie. It's not as bad as some of the more disparaging reviews would have you believe, but it's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it's being. Quite a few of the positive reviews on here describe it as 'subtle', which to me is a complete misnomer - 'underwhelming' is a more apt description, i.e. nothing much happens plot-wise and the dialogue is pretty stilted. There really isn't any subtlety in the symbolism within the film, and the message is drilled in way too much, with some particularly cringe-inducing, knowing-wink-worthy dialogue ''Have fun exploring the abyss'' ''You too'' was particularly garish and predictable .I found this fairly patronising approach to the viewer was also reflected in Braff's creation of the love interest who, though played well by the as-ever on form Natalie Portman, seems to be little more than a mildly disturbing Holden Caulfield-esque 'innocent' fantasy girl. So it largely fails on the 'serious' elements, and it really isn't funny enough to make up for it either. There are a few good moments, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, a more depressed version of JD doesn't generate that many laughs.The considerable acting talent in this film does warrant it some praise at least, but even the likes of Ian Holm, and the aforementioned Portman, couldn't fully save this for me. Not dreadful by any means, but ultimately Braff's writing struggles to deal with fairly heavy themes succinctly enough or with much originality. 5