Garden State

What a sweet, quirky little film. I know that if I were 10 years younger, this would be a film to see over and over and over...kind of like how I felt about The Breakfast Club. It focuses on the travails of those in their late 20s to early 30s, in particular a numb film actor (Zach Braff), an epileptic former figure skater (Natalie Portman), a grave-digging slacker (Peter Sarsgaard), and a self-made millionaire with an unfurnished mansion and a golf cart for roaming around all the empty rooms. Plus a guy, his wife and baby who live in a grounded boat on the edge of a deep canyon-quarry. Did I say quirky? I meant kooky. There is a plot that reveals itself at a nice pace, an ending that matches the rest of the film, and some nice camera touches (the trippy spin-the-bottle scenes are a hoot). For a first screenwriting attempt, and a directorial debut, and both these things being done by a new actor on the Hollywood scene (Braff, currently on Scrubs), this is phenomenal work. He should pat himself on the back, write more scripts, get in touch with excellent directors and learn at their feet. Whether he can write anything non-angsty and more universal remains to be seen, but it's an excellent start.

year: 2004
length: 109 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0333766/combined