Garden State (2004)
Directed by Zach Braff
Andrew returns to his hometown for his mother’s funeral, a journey that reconnects him with old friends. The trip coincides with his decision to stop taking his powerful antidepressants. A chance meeting with Sam—a girl also struggling with various maladies—opens up the possibility of rekindling emotional connections, confronting his psychologist father, and perhaps beginning a new life.
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24 films that influenced Garden State
What critics say influenced Garden State
Impressive writing-directing debut from TV's Zach Braff, a small, contemplative updating of "The Graduate", shows a good ear for thoughtful, observational humor and a gift for understated angst.
Braff has made no secret of the fact that he was influenced by such films as Harold & Maude and The Graduate (the use of Simon and Garfunkel on the soundtrack is a bit of a giveaway), but presumably, he also watched David Gordon Green’s movies and one would guess he’s seen Beautiful Girls (which also starred Natalie Portman) way too many more times than can be considered healthy.
The upstart director intuitively uses this particular brand of cinematic shorthand with a skill and economy that matches similar such visual flourishes from directors like Mike Nichols ("The Graduate") or Richard Linklater ("Waking Life").
The fact that the above synopsis applies equally well to 2004's Garden State and 1967's The Graduate forces us to ask just what relationship exists between the films.
While it appears to aspire to a sort of Harold & Maude balance, instead of mellifluous, Garden State really just feels like a car crash--the misbegotten child of The Graduate and The Exorcist .
"Garden State" inspires obvious comparisons with " The Graduate ," not least in the similarity of the two heroes; both Benjamin and Andrew are passive, puzzled and quizzical in the face of incoming exhortations.
It takes a good 30 minutes to pick up the kind of momentum needed to drive a depressing character like Largeman through the finish line, but once Portman pops up as the cheerful love interest (reminiscent of her earlier work in “Beautiful Girls”), the film glides to its conclusion.
Braff has made no secret of the fact that he was influenced by such films as Harold & Maude and The Graduate (the use of Simon and Garfunkel on the soundtrack is a bit of a giveaway), but presumably, he also watched David Gordon Green’s movies and one would guess he’s seen Beautiful Girls (which also starred Natalie Portman) way too many more times than can be considered healthy.
Depending on your view, Shaun of the Dead is either a zombie flick masking as a comedy, or a comedy masking as a zombie flick, or Beautiful Girls masking as a zombie comedy.
As director, Braff elicits the most charismatic Natalie Portman performance since "Beautiful Girls" and, visually makes the most of many sight-gags, including the inherent lunacy of working as a knight at Medieval Times.
Portman, freed from George Lucas' shackles and back in Beautiful Girls territory (but blessedly minus that earlier film's creepy pedophiliac vibe), simply glows in a role that could easily have crossed over into lethal levels of life-affirming perkiness.
Andrew gets a jolt out of sub-Springsteen territory when he meets Sam (Natalie Portman, in her most playful role since the similarly toned Beautiful Girls), a local girl ably coping with epilepsy.
Braff certainly shows promise, and I have to give him credit for placing himself squarely in the path of comparison to some of the greatest dark comedies of the past 30 years by consciously referencing "Harold and Maude", "The Graduate", and the more recent films of Wes Anderson.
(I talked to Braff over the phone about his influences and he mentioned the usual suspects such as Harold and Maude and Annie Hall, but also, surprisingly, Todd Haynes' masterfully creepy Safe, which settles onto the unwary viewer like a bad rash.)
"Scrubs" star Zach Braff returns to the perennial theme of going home again with "Garden State," his directorial debut, in which he pays homage to such classics as "The Graduate" and "Harold and Maude."
It takes just one of Hal Ashby’s frames to see that Harold and Maude has set an oddly liberated and dreamily realistic atmosphere for so many brilliant filmmakers and films to come – from Tim Burton and Wes Anderson, to gems like Garden State and Submarine.
When your movie not only holds up Good Will Hunting as an honored inspiration but makes the Damon-Driver romance seem like Brief Encounter by comparison, it's not a bad time to call someone with some actual experience in directing.
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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.
The upstart director intuitively uses this particular brand of cinematic shorthand with a skill and economy that matches similar such visual flourishes from directors like Mike Nichols ("The Graduate") or Richard Linklater ("Waking Life").
In this respect, Garden State makes Richard Linklater’s Slacker (1991) look like a cavalcade of success stories.
(I talked to Braff over the phone about his influences and he mentioned the usual suspects such as Harold and Maude and Annie Hall, but also, surprisingly, Todd Haynes' masterfully creepy Safe, which settles onto the unwary viewer like a bad rash.)
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Braff is best-known for starring in the TV series Scrubs, but he has a history in film dating back to his appearance in Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993 and it seems obvious that Allen left a mark on him, as did Braff's subsequent stints in independent films.
It's an empathic performance -- even eclipsing the heartfelt ones she gave in Beautiful Girls and Anywhere But Here -- and her compassion eventually wears off on us: It's hard not to laugh, weep or ruminate right along with her character.