Garden State

I realize this is really yesterday's news, but I'll post about it anyway: I went down to the Balboa Theater yesterday to see Garden State. I’ll admit that there were a few John Hughesy moments, especially as the story wraps up, as well as a few indie-film clichés. But overall it's a great story, with a smartly assembled soundtrack to boot. (Nice choice of Colin Hay material, by the way.) File in the DVD collection (eventually) next to The Station Agent and You Can Count On Me: small stories about fewer than five people with no special effects.

As a former New Jersey resident who's returned there from California about four times in five years, I certainly saw a bit of myself in Zach Braff's character. I can't say I related to the role of antidepressants in the film, but I imagine you can take his discontinuation of their use as either a comment on overprescription or as a metaphor for discovering real adult feelings or intimacy. (I prefer the latter.) I was also reminded of the New Yorker piece last month about how people don't seem to get over tragedies as well as they used to, in which Malcolm Gladwell observes that people's imagined feelings about traumatic events are worse than the feelings of people actually experiencing those events.

As for Natalie Portman’s portrayal, she nailed the accent (like the way they pronounce the name of the school as "Ruckgers" there), for one thing. All those people remind me of kids with whom I grew up, and I know some of them are pretty much hanging around doing the same thing. I can’t decide whether the Aunt Sylvia character is a caricature or the real thing, because there are so many ridiculous people like that where I grew up. Loved the Method Man cameo too.

I hadn't seen a bit of Braff's work on TV when I walked into the theater, but I'll be keeping an eye out for him in the future.

I stayed for the second feature, which was a remake of Alfie starring Jude Law. I would've paid $5 to see Garden State, so I’ll assume I saw Alfie for free. (As you may know, the Balboa has the best matinee deal around.) With that in mind, the only question is whether I had something better to do for 90 minutes. Probably should've taken a nap instead.