"Garden State" (2004) - Movie Review

Zach Braff, popularly known for his character J.D in the sitcom “Scrubs” debuted as a director in this movie. The story revolves around a young man who comes back to his home for his mother’s funeral. He reconnects with some of the people and the changes in his view towards life are essentially, “Garden State”.

Zach Braff as a frozen and hardened young man with the tinge of sudden reactions with total control is something one may not expect from this always comical J.D in “Scrubs”. The character, Andrew Largeman as a kid may have been your cousin or a junior kid when you were in high school or the corner house street kid who acted “weird” as the system termed it. He does not feel any emotion, which includes his own frustration of not feeling it. He finds himself in the midst of his old buddies with whom he does not mingle but watches them. He does not know whether he missed his home or whether he is lucky not to be out there wasted. With that, he meets the vivid and emotionally hyper active Sam, beautifully portrayed by Natalie Portman. And their interesting period of four days are captured closely and narrated in a state of ease and intensity mixed together.

It is of no surprise when I learnt that the movie was shot in 25 days since the screenplay is straightforward. There are no unnecessary “blackout” scenes to show the numb mind of Andrew or to depict some weird flashback scenes to confirm his psychological reactions to an event. The viewers talk with Andrew and listen to him. He tells his side of story and rest is left with the audience to think about it. The narration style is a comical poem with punctuations now and then at the right moments essential for an independent styled movie.

There are lots of funny moments which tickles you, makes you laugh out crazily and suddenly they give you this totally intense and tension in the screen, that it makes the viewers get up and pay more attention to the detail. The science of using that is very fragile since it may snap away the comical relief intended for that scene from the audience, but they have excelled it with such an ease. The cinematography is very fresh and refreshing to bring out the small town ambience. It is definite to bring back the memories of anyone’s native where they grew up and did all the mischief they are not supposed to.

The soundtrack of the movie was handpicked by Zach Braff himself and he won a Grammy Award in year 2005 for Best Compilation Soundtrack album for a motion picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Soundtrack definitely plays a major role for a movie and I have been impressed now and then with one or two songs in some movies but this is the second time that I felt all the songs are so sequenced and laid out; it brings out the right emotions for those particular instances. The first movie which had an impressive soundtrack is of course “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”.

“Garden State” is not about an only one emotionally confused man but it’s the same feeling in every one of us, trying to find out reasons to emote and react, rather than to feel it and express it at that moment.