Garden State (2004)

Directed by Zach Braff. Starring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Ian Holm, Armando Riesco, Ann Dowd, Jackie Hoffman. [R]

Feature writing/directing debut for Zach Braff is a real mixed bag, as ambitious as it is content, shallow in its storytelling and characterizations but clever in its offbeat joke writing. Braff stars as an emotionally-numb twenty-something who comes home to New Jersey after his mom dies; there, he reconnects with old friends (including grave-digger Sarsgaard), avoids a serious tête-à-tête with semi-estranged dad Holm, and meets a young woman (Portman) who helps him come out of his shell and feel again. At a glance, this is The Graduate for the first wave of millennials (or, based on the frequent indie-pop needle-drops, “the Pitchfork generation”), designed to speak to a very specific mindset/age group, but it depicts the sort of angst that young adults (hopefully) grow out of quickly—older viewers can see it as the “nostalgia of narcissistic embarrassment,” perhaps the least pleasurable form of nostalgia. The characters and dialogue struggle through forced affectations and quirkiness, delivering an uneven mix of hysterical lines (“Pun intended?”) and self-conscious awkwardness (“Good luck exploring the infinite abyss”). Skips through several easygoing episodes that make frustrated observations charming, but then fumbles its overreach for profundity and uplift toward the end, especially in regard to the superficial out-in-the-open conversation between father and son. Portman manages an appealing mix of the capricious, the compassionate, and the adorable, but she’s ground zero for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype. Several familiar faces (past and future) make one-scene appearances, including Jean Smart, Ron Liebeman and Jim Parsons.

50/100