Fox Home Video, $29.98
Release Date: 12/28/2004
by Wild About Movies
Scrubs star Zach Braff displays astonishing versatility as the writer, director, and leading man of this charming, visually striking independent drama, which came from nowhere to captivate critics and audiences in 2004. Braff impressed viewers with his understated, perceptive portrayal of a struggling, chronically depressed actor who returns to his home state of New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. Emotionally numb and ill equipped to cope with his estranged father (a miscast but nonetheless effective Ian Holm), the actor lunges into an unexpectedly satisfying relationship with a delightfully eccentric young woman (Natalie Portman) who turns out to be a pathological liar. Garden State is a difficult movie to classify: In spots it’s very funny, yet it’s not really a comedy. It’s also sad, yet not a tragedy. It’s frequently sober and contemplative but hardly a pure drama. The film is multilayered, like life itself. Branff’s script has depth and the characters are well drawn if somewhat ambiguous; we’re never really sure, for example, how to feel about the actor’s former best friend (Peter Sarsgaard), a gravedigger who doesn’t think twice about stealing jewelry interred with corpses but goes to extraordinary lengths to do a favor for his grieving friend. We root for reconciliation between the bereaved father and the son he drove away years ago, but Ian Holm plays the dad as too distant and detached to reach any lasting understanding with his boy. In the end it’s Portman’s character that makes the strongest impression, rousing Braff’s actor from his self-imposed torpor and giving him a reason to reengage. Garden State won’t bowl you over with flashy histrionics or garrulous profundity, but it will creep up on you and leaving you wanting more when the end credits begin to roll.
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