Andrew is living a rather torrid life, working in a restaurant he doesn’t particularly care about, and dealing with customers that are born obtuse and mentally challenged. His mother has drowned, and he’s been asked by his father to return home from the funeral. His life until this point has been constant medication to control his suggested behavioural problems, limiting him his emotional depth to that of a zombie.

Garden State is a quirky piece, like a coming of age melodrama. The characters are mostly interesting, yet eccentric, the town itself reminded me of Fargo in some ways, with it’s rather surreal behaviour and mannerisms. Zach Braff, who’s spent most of his time laying JD in Scrubs, not only stars as the lead, but also wrote the script and directed the film, with support from one Danny DeVito as Executive Producer.

In the town, Andrew has made a name for himself, having left for the dream of being an actor. He starred in one film as a mentally challenged footballer (or retard), which it seems not many have seen, but the idea alone is enough to get his friends into a frenzied state. Becoming reacquainted with old friends and the town he left to get away from, he also understands the need to see his father, who is still bitter about Andrew leaving.

I didn’t like the movie a whole lot, in all honesty, because it was so generic. It seemed like a trendy, Indie interpretation of the typical boy meets girl story. The story itself comes across as rather Freudian too: boy loses mother, boy finds girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl replaces mother. Garden State feels very pretentious, but there’s so little to distinguish this from any other film. It’s more understated, more subtle with its characters, but the clichés all exist within this film, they’re just disguised better. I didn’t watch the film to analyse it, but I could have drawn a bloody map as to where the film was headed and what was coming up next.

This is not the great movie you think it might be, it’s not the good movie that people want it to be

Although, I actually liked Zach Braff’s character of Andrew for the most part. The latter half he’s just annoying and comes across as laughable, instead of tender or sincere. Ian Holm plays his father, and normally his accents are decent, but in this it sounds as though he just rehearsed and was rush to film, without practising the accent. Perhaps it’s the fact I know he’s English, but when he wants to pull off an accent, he can do it. In Garden State his performance is rather underwhelming.

What it felt like to me was Braff was unable to break out of a role he’s played for so long; that of the hapless, sensitive person. His performance at the very start up until he leaves to return home was good, not great, but ultimately what you’re watching is not Zach Braff in a new role; it’s Zach Braff imports JD in to Garden State. From the behaviour, to the jokes, to the sentimental moments: it screams JD. This is such a disappointment, because this is exactly what I didn’t want. He’s essentially typecast himself in to a role that he had an opportunity to break out of. Instead he’s just the comfort zone. Add to which, to write, direct and to star in the lead role screams of ego. It’s a very difficult process, but it might have been better if there was a more objective director, or an actor he was controlling to direct. It’s all so damn contrived it’s annoying.

I feel I’ve been conned into watching this film. How the hell it’s got in as #165 in the IMDB top 250 is perhaps explainable by the fact that people like safe films

Natalie Portman is another matter altogether. In terms of beauty she’s pretty good, and appeals to the male fantasy no doubt, but in terms of acting talent I don’t know what everyone is going on about. She’s had one decent role, and that was as a child actor in Leon. Since then, what has she done that makes her to be a good actress, I wonder? Every role she’s played has been boring and ultimately safe.

It seems the norm to regard every pretty girl as a talent, when the talent doesn’t actually exist. There’s nothing whatsoever that is special about Natalie Portman’s performance in this, or any other film. She can’t act, in my opinion, and I can name 100 other females that can act, just as you can. Having said that, I guess if you look at the state of female actresses of her age, and suitable for the role in this film, they’re very limited – let’s face it, they’re all rubbish. From Claire Danes, to Kirstin Dunst (who comes out with some of the dumbest comments ever heard), Brittany Murphy (God awful and offensive). There are no stars, just very, very, very average girls that look pretty. I think Reese Witherspoon is actually quite good in some roles she plays, but they’re few and far between and I haven’t seen her in any dramatic roles either.

I feel I’ve been conned into watching this film. How the hell it’s got in as #165 in the IMDB top 250 is perhaps explainable by the fact that people like safe films. Safe films that give you a good feeling, a happy ending, and tie things up very tidily. If these same people watched a David Lynch film, say Wild at Heart, I guarantee that most would hate it. That in comparison is a much more powerful film with depth, symbolism and metaphor. I was not asking for art, but if it comes in a film that can execute it, I’ll take it. Everything about Garden State was ordinary, and for the most part boring. Portman cannot act, Braff can only play the same character over and over, and the script was bad, bad, rewritten Hollywood romance pertaining to be an Indie film.

I actually liked Zach Braff’s character of Andrew for the most part. The latter half he’s just annoying and comes across as laughable, instead of tender or sincere

A lot of people hated Lost in Translation, which I felt was a not bad movie. Murray gave a pretty excellent performance, as did Johansson. It was a very mature film, and promising work from Sofia Coppola. In comparison, there’s so little to say about Garden State that can’t be said about a 100 MTV films of the same format. Replace Braff with any of those heart throbs from teen film that girls go “ga-ga” over, and throw in Rachel Leigh-Cook, Sarah Michelle Gellar or that other teen trash, Jennifer Love Hewitt, change the environment to some Florida beach and what you have is the same film. It would still be rubbish, but would be more popular rubbish.

This is not the great movie you think it might be, it’s not the good movie that people want it to be, and there are certainly more films that deserve higher praise and more coverage than this. Garden State is dull, predictable and very, very overrated. This is of course my opinion, but I would ask what’s so different, unique or special about this film that you have not seen before? I hope when people start to praise films, they actually consider and think about how it compares to something else they’ve seen, instead of watching it as something that’s never been done before.

Verdict: Horrendously disappointing, wholly overrated, and ultimately poor