Garden State - Movie Review

Garden State is a comedy-drama film released in 2004. Written by, directed by and starring Zach Braff, this film leaves no one indifferent. Apart from love, it is focused on friends, family and life. 

Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) is a twenty-something TV actor in Los Angeles whose life revolves around antidepressants. One day, he receives a call from his father in which he finds out that his mother has died. He comes back home to Garden State (New Jersey) to attend his mother's funeral. He hasn't been home in nine years and the relation with his family is almost null. So, at first, everything is very cold and distant. However, he finds a lot of old friends easily, like Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), with whom he has great and crazy moments. 

Unexpectedly, he meets a pretty young girl, Sam (Natalie Portman), with whom he starts a nice relationship. They know each other and, at the same time, they know themselves better. Despite their different personalities, they have a special complicity that makes them bring out their feelings. 

Andrew opens up his heart to his friends and admits that when he was a child, angry with his mother, he pushed her, knocking her over a dishwasher, what ended up in a tragedy: she was paralysed. That is why his father, Gideon (Ian Holm), put him under medication since then, blaming him for everything happened, making him believe that his mother's paralysis was his fault. However, after many years, Andrew stops taking the drugs he thought he needed and begins to see his life from another perspective, trying to enjoy it. 

Meanwhile, “Large” tries to do his best at home, but he has a pending conversation with his psychiatrist father. Both were afraid of talking to each other, but finally Andrew tells him that he has stopped taking his medication because he has realized that his mother's paralysis was not his fault. Since then, they are going to try to have a better relationship.

Despite the begs of Sam, Andrew wants to come back to Los Angeles. But at last, he realizes he has to stay there and he wants to, because Garden State is the place where he feels good.

The idea of the film is very good and it has a good beginning, but the ending fails to be as the viewer expects. It concludes as a typical American film, and in my opinion, this is where the film does not live up to the expectations, because the film is not a typical American story and I was a bit disappointed at this point. However, Garden State touches, enjoys and surprises the viewer, what is so difficult to achieve for a director. Moreover, Zach Braff, known to be an (intentionally) dull actor, makes this cleverly-written film a very well-acted one. Natalie Portman contributes to give a fresh air full of energy and happiness. It is plenty of touching and reflexive scenes, as well as wit, spark and tenderness that make this apparently-simple film unique.