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Garden State
EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures / Miramax Films

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 147 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama
Written by: Zach Braff
Directed by: Zach Braff
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 28, 2004
DVD: December 28, 2004
Running Time: 119 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language, drug use and a scene of sexuality
Starring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Ian Holm, Method Man, and Jean Smart
Andrew Largeman (Braff) shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation from the pills to see what might happen. When he travels from L.A. back to his hometown, he meets Sam (Portman), a girl who is everything he isn't. Her warmth and fearlessness give him the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Premiere Peter Debruge
Garden State gets it. Not since "The Graduate" has a movie nailed the beautiful terror of standing on the brink of adulthood with such satisfying precision.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
There's even a Simon and Garfunkel tune on the soundtrack, which makes Braff's character seem like the only living boy in New Jersey, which, of course, he may well be. L'chaim!
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Garden State is filled with characters you long to know more about, in situations to which almost anyone can relate. And that's as near a can't-miss movie formula as one can get.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The movie never finds a consistent tone -- the humor is dynamically offbeat, the dramatic moments a bit canned -- but Braff's affection for his misfit characters and skeptical take on how people sell themselves short in America make this the truest generational statement I've seen since "Donnie Darko."
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Garden State charms with ease and moves with grace; it's warm but never mushy, languorous but never groggy, rueful but never despondent. It's like a perfect pop song--that thing that makes you smile and tear up at the same time.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Garden State illuminates a young man's overdue coming of age with unexpected depth and grace.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge
Writer/director Zach Braff has threaded a powerful and intelligent personal story through a genre all too rare today romantic comedy.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's a hilarious and heartfelt ode to twentysomething angst. Braff has himself a winner.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Though unlikely to have the lasting quality of "The Graduate," it feels a bit like that seminal film for today's generation.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Sometimes veers off into preciosity. But it offers something rare in the bond between Andrew and Sam.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Certainly Garden State is a very American specimen of debut indie form, its loose, goof-about scenes of comic melancholy reinforced with the glue of quirkiness over cracks in the narrative development.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Braff makes a striking directorial debut while leading a superb ensemble cast.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
Though too dear at times, overly sentimental in its conclusion and sporadically overreaching to be the voice of a generation, it's otherwise emotionally spot-on as it follows Andrew back to his Garden State hometown for his mother's funeral.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The best performances are those of Portman and the resourceful Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) as Mark.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This is not a perfect movie; it meanders and ambles and makes puzzling detours. But it's smart and unconventional, with a good eye for the perfect This is not a perfect movie; it meanders and ambles and makes puzzling detours. But it's smart and unconventional, with a good eye for the perfect detail.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
A fanciful little indie brimming with emo music and curious little vignettes, marks a self-conscious but very promising debut for "Scrubs" star Zach Braff.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Zach Braff, who shot the film near his hometown of South Orange, N.J., directed this drama with subtle flair and wrote a star part that perfectly fit his acting range.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
There's no denying the intelligence at work here, or Braff's skill at weaving off-the-wall humor and sight gags into a story that, at heart, is profoundly sad.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Braff is bright and has a quick ear for vernacular dialogue, and he's caught the look and the sound of his blitzed, prematurely disillusioned generation, which has had to live with more lack of definition than most.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Garden State features some wonderful performances, chief among them an engaging, even courageous turn from Natalie Portman.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
An edgy quasi-comedy, it's very funny in places, touching in others. There is a little unevenness. But for a directorial debut, it's amazingly assured.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Park
Braff's naive romanticism is also lovely proof of the film's innocent heart.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Tim Merrill
When Braff keeps the tears and the kookiness in check, he takes us into some unusual, interesting areas of the human psyche. And makes us laugh a good deal while he's at it.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
While most movies would sink under the weight of such eccentricity, pretentiousness and earnestness, Garden State is so full of wit and the genuine heart of characters that you can't help but care about what happens to them.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Zach Braff has come up with a charming, funny, melancholy ode to twentysomething angst.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
As long as you go into Garden State with reasonable expectations, its capacity to disappoint will be limited.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Braff's deadpan performance and dry reactions are deft, and his ability to shape a scene to a punctuation point is impressive, but he's all over the place as a writer.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A standard issue, first-movie navel-gaze whose cobwebs Braff meticulously sweeps away by directing the bejesus out of it. The photography makes loveliness out of the film's dank, hung-over atmosphere; the camerawork and editing lend the movie a luscious daydreaminess.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Braff, and Garden State, give it the old college try, and at least some, if not all, of the sparks catch. Even if the movie doesn't quite take off, it doesn't leave you feeling stranded, either.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Although Zach Braff's promising writing-directing debut is a bit affected, few actors with behind-the-camera aspirations succeed as well as the Scrubs star does with this melancholy romantic comedy.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Garden State coasts on this considerable charm until it hits a brick wall in its final segments.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
What the movie lacks -- a big lack, not a fatal lack -- is a compelling character at its center. Everyone in Garden State is fun, skewed, strange and singular.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Say this for actors: Too self-centered to be embarrassed, they can be existential heroes of a (moronic) sort.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Braff's idea of self-discovery is my idea of narcissism.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 147 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
tim R. gave it a10:
Deep and moving.
Alex gave it a10:
My gf made me watch this movie the other day and i was expecting a girly kind of romantic comedy (not knowing any real details of who was directing or the plot) but i can say that it has become one of my favorite movies of all time. A definite recommendation.
Kyle L gave it a10:
I think this movie has everything a movie needs to be great! It is hilarious at times, sad at times, and it can bring you to reality as well. A Great movie in my opinion!
Cindy P gave it a10:
Probably my favorite movie to date. I can watch it over and over again. The acting is incredible and the story is real and moving. I can't imagine how anyone could not like this movie!!
Justin R. gave it a10:
It's so beautiful. Everyone grows up and you can relate to the feeling of finding yourself. All of us have to do it, and Mr. Braff did a flawless job.
Douglas F. gave it a7:
Good flick! Can't say I'd see it twice but this was a real cute story with some fine acting by all parties. Braff could easily be misconstrued as keeping the movie a bit slow and such but this creates a genuine pace around a fella doped on lithium for about a decade. I thought the ending was a little rushed and unexciting but then who's attention span coes past 2 hours these days? I will definitely look up the director's cut as I'll just bet that "the left-outs" would make this epic. Would recommend you also see both!! O, and GREAT SOUNDTRACK!!
Ravi U gave it a3:
I dont know what it is about this movie, but the slow pacing and Braff's acting just seem to drag the movie down. Now, don't get me wrong...I enjoy independent films as much as the next guy, but this film just felt so tedious to get through. I honestly love Braff and Portman in their other projects (Scrubs and Star Wars, respectively) but I felt like there was just some chemistry missing here. I'm sad to say that I can't recommend this movie.
