Garden State, written, and directed by lead actor Zach Braff, is an enjoyable film with a simple message about going home in both a physical and emotional sense. Yet home in this film is not so much in the place as it is in feeling safe. Appropriately, Maureen and I saw the film in Maplewood, N.J., the home theater of New Jerseyan Zach Braff, whose brothers and he attended nearby Columbia High School.
Andrew Largeman or “Large,” played by Braff, is an small-time actor who returns to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. Since his youth Large has taken a variety of medications, including Lithium, that keep him from his supposed violent tendencies. His anger manifested itself as a nine-year old when he pushed his mother down in the kitchen, which led to her accidental paralysis. Large’s father (Ian Holm, who played Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is his psychiatrist who diagnosed and treated his condition. Large hasn't seen his family in a decade.
While at a doctor’s office to treat his small explosive headaches, Large meets Samantha (played by Natalie Portman), who introduces him to new music after a Seeing Eye dog masturbates on Large’s leg. She recognized him as the guy who played a retarded quarterback so convincingly she thought he actually was retarded.
Sam is a pathological liar and an epileptic, who must wear protective headgear when she travels. It looks like a soccer ball on her head. Before her epilepsy, she performed as an ice skater, including her signature moment as a skating alligator. “Here comes the double axel!” She has an African “brother,” who she explained had been sponsored by her family after Sally Struthers made an appeal on television. Forgotten for years, he later arrived at their home in New Jersey to attend Rutgers University to study criminology. How much of that story was true, however, was never quite explained, which was part of the fun.
When Large returned to New Jersey he left his drugs behind in Los Angeles. Dr. Cohen, who examines him in New Jersey, counsels him to seek a new psychiatrist and treat the true cause of his problem.
The problem, of course, is that his father has never forgiven him for taking away the vital woman he’d married, and Large has never been able to shed a tear for his mother. He blames a piece of plastic that failed to hold the dishwasher door up. Had the door stayed in its proper spot, when he pushed her she wouldn’t have fallen over the door and cracked her neck on the counter. Yet, he knows that he and his father love each other and that they will be fine. It is only after Large and Sam chat in a tub (his mother drowned in a tub) with their clothes on that he recalls for her the moment he realized his mother loved him: when his nose was so full of snot and she offered her sleeve to him to clean himself. Sam catches the lone tear in a Dixie cup.
Portman was excellent in this film, a refreshing change from her Padme role in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. She came across as a fun-loving, affectionate, intelligent young woman who has learned to live with her disability and who becomes the source of truth as well as safety in Large’s life. She, like the Garden State, are home for Large.
The story is simple and the scenes can be poignant, but the film is also filled with unnecessary characters and moments that exist purely for their humor value. Frankly, I found that pleasant in a non-formulaic sort of way. I liked the main characters and the odd moments and settings that make me wonder if Braff is a fan of the magazine Weird NJ. The ending seemed abrupt, as though a series of scenes back in Los Angeles were cut out for budgetary reasons. I still don’t see any reason for the character of the police officer who pulled Large over for speeding and turned out to be an old friend who seemed the least likely to become a police officer – unless it was an inside NJ joke that so many of us here have friends who became cops, which is true.
All in all, I’d say it was worth the price of the tickets, popcorn and soda.
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