In the Back Row

with Allison McKinley © 2005

Film: Garden State
(Twentieth Century Fox Home Video)

Allison's review in ten words or fewer: To cry for. Top-notch acting, writing; clever and heart-warming.

Grade: A+

Genre: Romance/comedy
Rating (USA): R
Runtime: 103 Minutes
DVD Release Date (US): 28 December 2004
Starring: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Ian Holm
Directed/Written by: Zach Braff
Special DVD Features:

• Commentary by writer-director-actor Zach Braff and Natalie Portman
• 16 deleted scenes with optional commentary
• Making-of featurette
• Outtakes and bloopers

* * *

This is one hot film. It popped into IMDb's top 250 virtually overnight at number 187. Nearly one half of the eighteen thousand who voted for it gave it a perfect ten. I'll wager most of them were under 25 years of age. This is a film for the young at heart.

I had to pull strings and call in favours to get a copy of this DVD (and one that would play in the proper format) here in the UK. But when Natalie Portman is in it, I will find a way! I have loved her ever since my brother took me to see "Beautiful Girls" at the cinema in Bradford.

Why was Garden State so resoundingly snubbed at the Oscars? Sad to say, the answer comes down to two little words: Release dates. Films seeking Academy consideration are usually released late in the year, typically in October, November and December. Garden State played first on 16 January 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival. UK film fans enjoyed the premiere here at the London Film Festival on 23 October, and the film still has not released on the Continent.

If the studio were to have their way, however, young Zach Braff would garner every award they could give, as his $2.5 million-budget film has grossed in excess of $25 million so far in relatively limited release, making Zach one of the most bankable actor/writer/directors in 'Hollywood'.

In the video "The Making of Garden State", 23-year old Natalie Portman said she enjoyed working on a film with other young people. I can add that I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a film that displayed so much young energy and enthusiasm for life--albeit a bit skewed through Zach Braff's eyes.

Many reviewers have likened this film to "The Graduate", I suppose because it contains a song or two by Simon and Garfunkle. My advice to them is, Get real!

Zach Braff was heavily influenced by Hal Ashby ("Harold and Maude") and Woody Allen, and he certainly replaces Mr. Allen in the triple-hit category of writer/director/star.

We are no stranger to Zach Braff here in the UK, as the show "Scrubs" premiered on cable/satellite channel Sky One on 17 January 2002. It is a very popular show here.

Besides the wonderful work of Zach Braff as an actor, and the tremendous support provided by Natalie Portman--who does not enter the film until the 28th minute and manages to steal every scene thereafter!--Peter Sarsgaard (the crossbow killer in Unconditional Love) dreamily underplays Mark, modern-day grave robber, and Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins of Lord of the Rings) plays the role of New Jersey father with tremendous poise, and a wonderful American accent.

In Jerry McGuire, Renee Zellweger as loyal secretary Dorothy Boyd says, 'You had me from hello.' I must say that Zach Braff's character Andrew captured my attention from the very first scenes of this film, wherein: a petrol nozzle is still stuck in his car as he arrives at the restaurant where he works in Los Angeles; the airplane is crashing and, whilst other passengers put on their oxygen masks, Andrew merely adjusts the air conditioning above him; Andrew is "saluted" by the automatic faucets in the restroom as he walks past; his shirt metaphorically blends with the wallpaper in his mother's bathroom. I was laughing to the point of tears before an actor spoke a single word. Zach had me long before the first 'hello'.

This is the story of a boy coming home to New Jersey for his mother's funeral. Andrew Largeman has been living in Los Angeles, working as an actor/waiter because he likes being other people. Via a phone message from his father/psychiatrist (who has kept Andrew on drugs all his life), Andrew is informed that his mother has died--that she in fact drowned in her own tub.

Who can miss the Allen-esque humour of the 'medicine cabinet' scene that follows--not just the face split by the mirror, but the immaculately neat rows of medication that line the shelves? Or the scene once he arrives home: a Jewish boy riding a German WWII motorcycle that his grandfather has left him? And while she doesn't speak the exact words from Annie Hall, 'You're what Grammy Hall would call a real Jew'...

...after he has met compulsive liar Sam (Natalie Portman) and given her a ride home, she shows him her most prized possession (besides her dead hamster):

Sam: This is Tickle (holding up a rag).

Andrew: What is tickle?

Sam: Tickle's my favourite thing in the whole world. It's all that's left of Nanny, my blanket.

Andrew: What happened? Hurricane...?

Sam: Shut up!

Andrew: It's like a Wailing Wall.

Sam: What?

Andrew: The Wailing Wall is the most holy place for Jews to go and pray in Israel. It's all that's left of this enormous temple that was destroyed by the Romans.

Sam: So you're like really Jewish? You are!

Andrew: What? I don't do anything Jewish. I don't go to temple, or anything. I don't know any Jews who go to temple.

Like Woody Allen, always explaining away his Jewishness, Zach has his character Andrew fall for a shiksa, a non-Jewish girl.

By the way, Natalie Portman was Zach's first pick to play the role of Sam; and she seems to be the perfect shiksa for any Jewish boy, as she was born in Israel.

Andrew comes home to find his friends only a little changed; Mark is a gravedigger/grave robber at the Jewish cemetery, Kenny (the guy who once sniffed coke off a urinal) has become a cop, and Jesse is now a millionaire after "the man" bought his patent for silent Velcro.

"Garden State" is a warm romance, punctuated with outrageous visuals--a leg-humping seeing-eye dog, a masturbating terrier, a graveyard of pets, an armoured friend from Medieval Times Restaurant (He's just a fast-food knight) who's making it with Mark's mother (Jean Smart)...

Oh, and if you're a John Ritter fan, you will see that Zach brings John's face back to life every time he deadpans the camera.

Let me leave you with the line that I believe best sums up this charming film.

When Sam tells Andrew that she has to wear a funny helmet to work because she suffers from epilepsy, he asks, 'What part are we laughing about again?' Sam answers:

'If you can't laugh at yourself, life is going to seem a whole lot longer than you'd like.'