Playing a burnout gravedigger, Peter Sarsgaard ( Shattered Glass , Boys Dont Cry ) proves once again that he may just be one of the most versatile and understated actors working today.
Mark would probably have been a nothing role without Sarsgaard (so good in Shattered Glass).
Certainly he seems that way to the admiring Mark (Peter Sarsgaard of “Shattered Glass”), a gravedigger whose propensities for pot, partying and low-level larceny slowly pull his reluctant pal into a variety of adventures.
At his mother's funeral, he meets old friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard, "Shattered Glass") seated beside the earth mover that has dug the grave.
Braff has a nebbishy Everyman quality that suits the part of Large, while Sarsgaard (who turned heads as the conscientious editor in Shattered Glass) contributes an edge of brittle hostility to his character, enough so that at any given moment he seems equally capable of hugging or slugging Large.
And Sarsgaard -- who won the San Francisco Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actor for Shattered Glass (2003) -- does one of his lovely slow reveals, in which he first appears to be a shallow, selfish twerp, but eventually uncovers a big heart and a clear personality.