Friday, April 2, 2010

Garden State

As funny as Zach Braff may be, it may suprise you to know that he does, indeed, have a sensitive side. Now I have only seen a couple full episodes of Scrubs and a couple clips of a couple other episodes, but from what I have see Garden State far exceeds anything that Zach could have every brought to his television show.

If you are looking for the screwball Braff and an hour and a half of nonstop laughs, then this is not the movie for you. In this gentle dramedy, Braff plays one of his own characters comically named Andrew Largeman (of course what would a Zach Braff film be without a little comic relief?) who returns to his hometown as a dried up actor after the death of his mother. Of course, what would any return home be like if you didn't meet somebody who made you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside?

Natalie Portman co-stars with Zach Braff as his quarky love interest. Now, this is not (by far) Portman's most memorable role in her career; however, she does add something to the story. Portman plays Sam, a mother's little girl character who has not had a mature role model in her life; however, Sam still feels like she is missing something and her fragile spirit attracts Largeman's interest; after all, his life has not been the best. Sadly, Portman's character is obviously has some quarks, and in that aspect Portman did a wonderful job at bringing her character to life; however, she can (and does) get a little annoying at times.

Zach Braff also does a very good job at bringing his character out of the pages and on to the screen. When I first rented this film I was not expecting as good of a preformance out of him as I saw and obviously this was not a fluke because I have seen this movie three times since then, and I still love it every time; who knew that he had a soft side?

Director, writer, producer, and star, Zach Braff shines in this film and in my opinion, it is by far his greatest achievement and I really want to see more films like this from him. Once again, I definitely reccommend this film to anybody who loves movies!

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