In the family of its contemporary peers such as I heart Huckabees, Life Aquatic, Rushmore, Tenenbaums, 40 Year Virgin, Napolean Dynamite, American Beauty, etc.. Garden State is the somber uncle. A narrative, wrapped around a 26 year old Jewish actor returning home to his family and town to attend his mother's funeral, wallows in the depths of the infinite abyss on the edge of existentialism. Existentialism, in which each unique individual defines their own meaning for life, or meaning for existence in a cold uncaring world, becomes the back-drop to this yarn. Yet where The Graduate was suspenseful and culturally taboo, Garden State is, in contrast,tame and subdued. I write this review right after my first viewing of this feature. Maybe GS grows on the audience. Maybe its domesticity is an intentional mirroring of the bland and blah'se. Maybe I am getting old. Maybe I see too much of myself in the protagonist. The question I kept asking myself was, "do I really care about these people, this character?" I kept thinking, "man, i heard so much goodness about this film. there's got to be something here." I recalled advertisements of the scene in the quarry, and when they finally arrived there i thought, "oh, another setting born within the story like recurring swear words and non-orthogonal visuals." Yes there is some cleverness here. Yes there is a soundtrack here. Yes Natalie Portman is here and swearing and looking very cute. Do we need Soderbergh slow-mos of our crew en-route to "the piece?" finally the last moments of the film take us back to the beginning (from which we woke from); but now at the payphone, and "what do we do now?" My guess is Zach Braff has more in store for the western world. The young actor/writer/director combo is quite rare, though this film is no Citizen Kane. Joshua Miller's "Mao Game" comes to mind and may have been more successful. I think this film more than accomplished the inferred goal of saying, "hey Hollywood, your films are not so great, i'm young and i'm gonna make a film, and exercise my talent, and maybe make some money, and this is what it was like growing up in new jersey, and doesn't queen amidala look so nice without all that make-up and costuming...(ellipsis)" Yet I didn't notice where a nuance was, if there was one intended. In the meantime,like the state of a garden, I'll let it grow on me.
p.s. from the second scene through the end i kept thinking this was what ferris buellers day off may have been like for alan ruck without broderick hip-mate. food for thought
p.s. from the second scene through the end i kept thinking this was what ferris buellers day off may have been like for alan ruck without broderick hip-mate. food for thought