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Garden State
Fox Searchlight Pictures / Miramax Films
MPAA 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)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Zach Braff
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Zach Braff
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 28, 2004
Video: December 28, 2004
Theatrical: July 28, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
119 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic), 2004 Sundance Film Festival
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...
100
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.
89
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!
88
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.
80
Empire
Olly Richards
A great debut from a promising talent.
80
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."
80
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.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Garden State illuminates a young man's overdue coming of age with unexpected depth and grace.
80
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.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
It's a hilarious and heartfelt ode to twentysomething angst. Braff has himself a winner.
75
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.
75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Sometimes veers off into preciosity. But it offers something rare in the bond between Andrew and Sam.
75
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.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Braff makes a striking directorial debut while leading a superb ensemble cast.
75
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.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
The best performances are those of Portman and the resourceful Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) as Mark.
75
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.
75
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.
75
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.
75
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.
70
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.
70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Garden State features some wonderful performances, chief among them an engaging, even courageous turn from Natalie Portman.
70
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.
70
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Small, smart, off-kilter comedy.
70
Village Voice
Ed Park
Braff's naive romanticism is also lovely proof of the film's innocent heart.
70
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.
67
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.
67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Zach Braff has come up with a charming, funny, melancholy ode to twentysomething angst.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
As long as you go into Garden State with reasonable expectations, its capacity to disappoint will be limited.
63
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.
63
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Feels too piecemeal and ultimately inconsequential.
60
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Garden State coasts on this considerable charm until it hits a brick wall in its final segments.
50
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.
40
Slate
David Edelstein
Say this for actors: Too self-centered to be embarrassed, they can be existential heroes of a (moronic) sort.
40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Braff's idea of self-discovery is my idea of narcissism.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 146 User Votes
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