Dir.
Zach Braff, 2004, USA, 102 mins
Cast:
Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm, Peter Sarsgaard
Essentially The Graduate for Generation X, Garden State marks the not-unimpressive directorial debut of Zach 'Scrubs' Braff as he swaps slapstick for a more restrained view of suburbia where a disillusioned young man returns home for his mother's funeral and ends up turning his life around. Slacker comedies are ten-a-penny these days but Garden State manages to be both funny and moving without resorting to cliché.
Struggling actor Andrew Largeman (Large to his friends) is stuck in a rut. A phonecall from his estranged father brings the news that his mother has just died and he is required to come home for the funeral. There Large meets up with his old schoolfriend Mark, who spends his time digging graves and getting stoned. They team up after the funeral and go to a party hosted by another school-chum who made millions on "silent Velcro". There, after being stuck on medication since he was eleven, Large finally starts to cut loose. The next day he goes to see a doctor about his headaches and whilst in the waiting room meets Sam, a sparky local girl who has a tendency to tell little white lies. Gradually they get to know each other and find they have a lot of things in common. Such as funerals.
Braff is excellent as the befuddled lead character and sensibly undercuts moments of complete comic absurdity by staring politely back at the odd people and events around him with numb indifference. Portman reaffirms the promise she showed a decade ago in Leon, breaking loose from the 'Padme from Star Wars ' tag and showing us her lighter side as Sam, a lost soul looking for her place in life (much like Large). Ian Holm has a minor role as Large's father Gideon but you do feel his presence. Peter Sarsgaad excels as the angry Mark, who steals from corpses and harbours a passionate grudge against his mother's new toyboy.
At times the film veers dangerously close to self-indulgence (you get the feeling some quirky moments were put there purely because they are quirky) and perhaps it thinks it's saying more than it really is, but at the end of the day Braff scores points merely for having the courage to try and connect with his young target audience and mostly succeeds in tremendous style. The nifty soundtrack ranges from Coldplay to the theme-song 'Let Go' by Frou Frou which, like the film itself, will be rolling around in your subconscious for days afterwards. Apart from the great script, Braff throws in some clever visual gags (the wallpaper shirt) and genuinely has a great eye for the absurd/beautiful things in everyday life.
Garden State succeeds thanks to its universal themes of loneliness and growing up, and has instantly quotable dialogue that Tarantino might have cooked up had he been a 20-something slacker from New Jersey ("Does it come with balloons?", "What am I? A clown? No! It does not come with balloons!"). Sure to become a cult (and possibly mainstream) classic, this is nothing short of essential viewing.
Tom Ramsbottom
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