Reviews of Garden State

Garden State review

Posted : 11 months, 1 week ago on 29 January 2009 05:36 (A review of Garden State)

I don't like Zach Braff's drama acting but this movie was cool enough, very very indie. Great soundtrack, story passing so slowly and the end was sooo cliché. Lastly, Natalie Portman was great as always she is...

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Garden State: Messy, but Satisfying

Posted : 1 year, 4 months ago on 16 August 2008 09:36 (A review of Garden State)

Garden State is essentially a romantic comedy - a type of film that I usually shrink from. In this film's case, I found myself altogether captured by the realism of it all.

The movie follows Andrew, a struggling actor living in L.A., who travels home after years of silence to attend his mother's funeral. While at home, he meets up with childhood friends in his small town, attempts to salvage his severly torn relationship with his psychologist/father, and meets a quirky woman whose loving personality encourages him to rethink his current state of affairs.

While I did mention I was captured by this film, I admittedly felt it lacked completeness. Certain facts seemed to be mentioned purely to move the script along, and then never mentioned or brought up again. In other words, it is difficult to grasp just what this film is about and what message it is trying to send. Is it merely a love story? Is it a film about family and illness? Is it about reconcilliation and coming to terms with where you came from? The film never fully explains this - but then again, is life ever fully concerned with one idea and one message? Should a film have to stick to one message? Or, one major message with other meanings scattered within?

At the end of the film, while I did have my doubts, I decided that I was satisfied, but not without a few qualms. Certain areas were traveling into cliche territory - but of course, life does contain a few cliches.

And if anything, the soundtrack is wonderful. Whatever flaws there might be in this film, Garden State surely leaves an impression on the viewer.

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Garden State review

Posted : 1 year, 5 months ago on 2 August 2008 06:49 (A review of Garden State)

Trata-se da história de um ator ainda pouco conhec

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[Film] Garden State

Posted : 2 years ago on 2 January 2008 04:15 (A review of Garden State)

Had really high expectations for this film, probably unrealistically. As a first time effort, the movie was done admirably. However, I was somewhat disappointed after watching it. Zach Braff, the writer/director/lead actor of the film, has created a sincere work that has moments of brilliance but can't quite get there. It has heart, humour and just right amount of quirkiness and edge to keep the movie relatively interesting, but ultimately it fails to captivate the audience, in this case, me. The film is at its best when it's honest (such as the pool scene and the 'home speech'), but often than not it tries too hard to be 'touching;' sentimentalism thus takes over the film and stops it from going beyond the superficiality of 'trying to be meaningful.'

The relationship between Braff's character Andrew and his father is sketchy at best, and instead of exploring the father-and-son relationship in depth, the film focuses more on the romance between Andrew and Sam, played by Natalie Portman. This decision certainly makes the movie more appealing to its target audience - the teenagers, but I think they could've given the father more of a substantial role and made the movie more balanced. As far as the acting goes, I can't get past Zach Braff's character from the TV show Scrubs. I'm so used to his quirky and over-the-top character from that show that I just can't see him in a serious role. It's weird. Natalie Portman is fine, but for me, Peter Sarsgaard, who plays Andrew's best friend Mark, gives the most convincing performance in the movie.

For the most part, Garden State is a enjoyable movie. The ending reeks of cheese, and the movie in the end opts for the easy solution to be as crowd pleasing as possible. There are, however, some really nice moments that are genuinely moving and the dialogue is fresh and poignant at times. It just didn't live up to my probably unreasonably high expectations.


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Garden State review

Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 20 August 2007 05:17 (A review of Garden State)

An indie film in every sense of the word, with a cast of quirky characters, strange locations and bizarre scenarios to boot. The film is still beautiful. The soundtrack compliments the film extremely well, as you'd expect with Zach Braff in charge of the tunes.

A love story unfolds between Zach Braff and Natalie Portman after his character returns home, after a long period away, to attend his mothers funeral. At home, nothing much has changed, his friends are still kicking around and his relationship with his father is extremely strained.

This film gets a lot of flak and I'm guessing it's just because Zach Braff is in it. Or maybe it's because indie films aren't supposed to be as accessible as this one is, who knows? It's a decent film that never fails to leave me with a smile on my face.

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Best Movie Ever!!

Posted : 2 years, 11 months ago on 20 January 2007 04:30 (A review of Garden State)

This movie is great! Zach Braff proved he is not only an amazing actor but also a good writer and director.
The movie is about life and how you choose to live it. It's all about simplicity. What makes this movie so good are the dialogues and how the story is told. And besides, the soundtrack is simply perfect, all the songs fit perfectly with the scenes in which they're played.

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