Garden State [DVD]

This film suprised me. I went into it knowing very little about the story but thinking it may be interesting to see what Zach Braff had to offer behind the camera (usually a good way of seeing how their mind works). As a consequence of this I starting watching it with a blank mind and no pre-conceived ideas. In retrospect, I think this may have been what they were aiming for as I was in pretty much the same mental state as Andrew (Zach Braff) is in the film - a numb zone where the world seems to be going faster than him, he feels he is always one step behind but doesn't have the energy to get out of the rut. The fact that his psychiatrist father (Ian Holm, I am a big fan!) is the one who's been dosing him all through his childhood is a nice twist and adds an interesting, if slightly underused, subplot.

As the film progresses over the last couple of days before Andrew takes off for pastures new, he stops his meds and this is where the direction and acting come into their own. It would be too easy to ram that fact down the viewers throats, but the very gradual re-awakening of Andrews senses and the bizarre journey he takes to find a suprise present for him with his girlfriend (a very talented Natalie Portman - George Lucas, you should be ashamed) and old friend (an equally excellent Peter Sarsgaard), which include perfectly timed comic moments which you can recognize from your own experiences (the guy in the hardware store anyone?) are dealt with at a strolling pace. Sometimes this pace of enlightenment is difficult to get right, but as the film wends its way from one well shot scene to another, you realize that you've been sucked in on his mental and physical trip and that you are really enjoying the ride. His journey really ends 15 minutes before the end of running time with a moment of release on the edge of a bottomless abyss (it makes sense in the film, honestly) and as I watched this, I realized that I was smiling a big, deep, warm smile. Films like this don't come along too often and when then do they blind-side you in all the right ways. Excellent acting and direction all round, so get yourself a big cup of tea, some chocolate digestives, then settle back, watch and enjoy!

One of my favourite movies of all time, I saw this six times in the movie theatre. Granted, I worked at a cinema at the same time, I paid for it five times at different theatres. Sadly, my theatre only had it for less than a week in limited release- and I had to go elsewhere, taking different sets of friends to see it.

It is a movie about a 20-something character named Andrew Largeman, who has gone off to seek his hollywood invested dreams.
Due to the recent death of his mother, Andrew is called back home from California to attend her funeral.

Back story:

Andrew, known as "Largeman", is from a small town in New Jersey, which is better known as the Garden State. Since a young age, Andrew has been prescribed different medications to keep him happy or rather subdued from his father's point of view. His father being a psychiatrist was the one that put Andrew on the medications in the first place.

Out of anger, when a young Andrew has an episode in which he physically pushes his mother, she falls and smacks into a dishwasher, which then causes her to be wheelchair bound for the rest of her life.
Andrew's father has blamed him since, although it was an accident due to the latch of the dishwasher being faulty.

Coming home, Andrew decides to stop taking the meds and starts to awaken from a life of being numb and for once actually be in the present moment.
Along the way, he meets up with old friends from high school, goes to a party but still feel detached and distant to those around him. While awaiting his doctor appointment for recent headaches, Andrew meets Sam, a girl that will change his life from that point onward.

Sam is bad pathologically liar, as she always feels bad lying and will come back around to let people know. Sam is quirky, seizes the moment and expresses herself in the now, which Andrew has had little practice in.

This is a coming of age story, with love in the mix.

Should Andrew go back to Hollywood to follow his dreams, although they might be pipe dreams and a way to escape his childhood-or- stay with the one he loves, that has changed his life for the better, and make a life with the unexpected?

I CANNOT WAIT for this Blu-ray. I have been waiting a long time, since blu-ray became mainstream for this to come out.

On a personal note: At the time, I was also a 20-something, freshly graduated from uni, and didn't have a clue on what to expect in life. I felt this film resonated something within me that made me feel connected with what Andrew, the main character was going through, that being choices in life, as well as relating to Sam, with her quirky state of being.

The soundtrack is another factor into why the movie is so great.

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"Garden State" is a great little Indie movie - with the impossibly lovely Natalie Portman literally lifting men's hearts for a ten-mile radius...

I wish I could say the same for the picture quality on this BLU RAY reissue, which unfortunately is terribly lacklustre - good only - and rarely ever better than the DVD.

It's defaulted to 2.35:1 aspect - which means bars at the top and bottom of the screen - but if you stretch to Zoom or Full Mode - the picture deteriorates considerably. So no luck there either...

There are at least some half-decent extras though - two excellent and funny commentaries both of which involve Zach Braff (Writer, Lead Actor and Director) and Natalie Portman. There's a making-of, a Zach Braff featurette, outtakes and deleted scenes - all of which are very entertaining and show the affection the cast and crew had for the material. Audio is 5.1 DTS-HD and the lone subtitle is English for the Hard-Of-Hearing.

Zach Braff plays Andrew Largeman - an out-of-sorts actor who returns home to his psychiatrist Dad in small town America (a wonderfully understated Ian Holms) because his wife and Andrew's paraplegic mum has slipped and drowned in a bathtub. Medicated for years (at his Dad's suggestion) - Andrew stares intently at the coffin - but feels little. Then he recognises two old friends sat nearby (one of whom is literally a grave digger - an ever-so-slightly sinister Peter Sarsgaard) and starts to reconnect with his old college chums in the town he left 9 years back.

But they turn out to be a bunch of dudes locked into menial jobs by day and serious stoners by night. But then while in a hospital waiting area (he's having lightning headaches) - a dog tries to dry-hump his leg - and there he meets a giggling twenty-something called Sam (Portman). Sam is a vivacious, chatterbox of a girl who is anything but numb. Sam is life itself. They start to hang out - go back to her home - ride around the neighbourhood on an old Army motorbike with a sidecar - dip in pools - chat by fires - and slowly they move towards each other in the loveliest of emotional dances. And on their relationship goes from there to an airport decision Andrew must make - be sedate or be alive...

I've always loved "Garden State" - quirky, touching, young and full of energy - it's a genuinely romantic film about life and second chances in the most unlikely of places. I just wish the BLU RAY matched that.

Still - if you can't resist - it is at least cheap...