I don’t think I’ve ever watched a full episode of Scrubs, so I have no particular opinion of Zach Braff as an actor. As a novice director, however, he’s got a lot of growing to do. The characters seemed terribly one dimensional. No emotional depth was ever reached… which is too bad, because the situation (going home for his mother’s funeral, discovering a new love, bonding with old friends) certainly cried out for it.

This is one of those movies that was so bad it makes me angry. Portman is an awful, awful actor. Braff is not much better. Visual gags were painfully forced and obvious, dialogue was trite, characters cliche.

I initially watched this for 34 minutes and gave up. Seriously, the airplane scene? The restaurant bit? The funeral? Let’s take an x-acto knife to every attempted ‘indie’ flick out there, compile their worst scenes, add some untalented young actors and call it good.

This was on TV again yesterday, so I watched the last hour. It’s like he was hoping that by changing locations a dozen times (and oh, they are so wacky and random!) it would distract from the fact that he wasn’t saying anything. No dice.

" There’s a handful of normal kid things I kinda missed. "

Me too.. :)

There were parts of this movie that I really liked, and perhaps they make me feel all the more disappointed in the long run, because there was alot of potential in this movie that never really came to fruition. I enjoyed alot of the humor, and visually the film was interesting enough… but some of the melodramatic elements (especially Largeman’s twin father/lover monologues at the end of the movie) really seemed forced and empty. Very different from the relaxed and realistic conversational tone that the movie tends toward throughout. It just seems like the movie succeeds better when it isn’t trying so damned hard to be deep.

I’m all for the young male’s journey toward manhood theme (god knows it’s been done enough)… but it has certainly been done better in many respects. Hack out a little of the feigned drama, and cut some of the gratuitous twentysomething angst, and this would be a much better film.

This is by far one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s one of the few movies I can watch over and over again without getting tired or bored with it. It’s amazing. End of story.

The part that moved me the most about Garden State is Andrew sharing with Sam how he lost his home. That the notion of a home has just disappeared. And later on, rediscovering what makes a home at the boat house.

I think I’m gonna making “making a home” a new goal in life.

such a cute film, I loved it and can’t wait to see it again.

This is one of the greatest movies that i have ever seen. word can’t even describe its greatness….i have seen it over 15 times and will never stop lovin it

I enjoyed this. I really digged the soundtrack also

I’ll never finish consuming this, because this is the only movie I can watch all over and over again :)

A strong directorial debut for Braff, but the gags (e.g., the wallpaper shirt, the halfwit cop) always seemed to be too labored, as if he had trouble making the transition from the zany comedy of Scrubs to the ironic humor of Garden State. Portman is a real disappointment, too. The actress is always visible behind her character.

This was a fab Sunday night film that kept the both of us entertained (though probably for different reasons…)