Garden State (film)

Garden State
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Zach Braff
Written by	Zach Braff
Produced by	Michael Shamberg Stacey Sher Danny DeVito
Starring	Zach Braff Natalie Portman Peter Sarsgaard Jackie Hoffman Ian Holm
Cinematography	Lawrence Sher
Edited by	Myron I. Kerstein
Music by	Alexi Murdoch Chad Fischer
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight
Release dates	July 28, 2004
Running time	102 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$2.5 million
Box office	$26.7 million (USA)

Garden State is a 2004 film written, directed by and starring Zach Braff, with Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and co-starring Sir Ian Holm. The film centers on Andrew Largeman (Braff), a 26-year-old actor/waiter who returns to his hometown in New Jersey for the first time in nine years, after receiving word from his father (Holm) that his mother has died. He reconnects with his friend Mark (Sarsgaard), now a gravedigger and a graverobber, at his mother's funeral. Largeman gets reacquainted with other old friends, all the time avoiding his father. While in the waiting room of a doctor's office, Largeman meets a local girl, Sam (Portman), and the two cautiously initiate a relationship.

It was filmed over 25 days in April and May 2003 and released on July 28, 2004. The main setting and primary shooting location was New Jersey. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival. The film won Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film contains many allusions to the similar coming of age film The Graduate, most notably the opening airplane scene that both pictures share.

Garden State was well received, and is considered a major success for Scrubs actor Zach Braff as it was his feature film debut as a director. The film connected with twentysomethings who felt that Braff's film was speaking to them personally. Lacking the publicity machine of most mainstream Hollywood films, it generated a devoted fan base from people who read and responded to Braff's blog on the film's official site. Fans drove hours to see the film and saw it repeatedly in theaters. The film also spawned a popular soundtrack for which Braff, who picked the music himself, won a Grammy award.

Overview

Synopsis

California waiter/actor Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) receives a call from his psychiatrist father (Ian Holm), learning that his paraplegic mother has died. After nine years, Andrew returns home to New Jersey for the funeral and the life he thought he had left behind. Largeman befriends an unusual girl, Sam (Natalie Portman), who happens to be his polar opposite, and reconnects with his gravedigging best friend (Peter Sarsgaard), his father, and eventually himself.

Summary

Andrew Largeman wakes up from a bizarre nightmare to a telephone message from his father, telling Andrew that he needs to return home because his mother has just died.

The struggling actor leaves Los Angeles and returns home to the state of New Jersey to attend his mother's funeral. At the end he greets some nearby gravediggers, whom he recognizes from his past. He explains to them that his mother just died and that he is in town for a couple of days. The workers, Mark and Dave, invite him to a party that night. Returning to his old house, Andrew talks briefly with his father. He tells his father of his random headaches and books a doctor's appointment. Later that night Andrew discovers his old motorcycle, complete with sidecar, and proceeds to the party where he meets up with Mark, as well as several of his other old friends. At the party he finds that most of the people he went to high school with are in a state of suspension, partying and doing drugs.

After spending the night at the party, Andrew awakes at Mark's house. He soon proceeds to his doctor's appointment. While in the waiting room, Andrew meets Sam. Sam says that she recognizes him from television, and Andrew talks with her briefly before he is called in for his appointment. Andrew informs the doctor that he left his anti-depressants back in Los Angeles, but turns down the opportunity for a new prescription.

Andrew finds Sam outside of the office. She tells him that her boyfriend is not picking her up and she was not waiting for a friend, as she previously claimed. Andrew eventually offers to drive her home on his motorcycle. She soon admits that she doesn’t even have a boyfriend and is a compulsive liar. Andrew is invited in and meets Sam's family, where she later declares that they 'won't make out'. After returning home, Andrew is confronted by his father, who is insistent that they have a talk before Andrew leaves town.

Andrew instead returns to Sam's house, where it is revealed that Sam has epilepsy. Andrew and Sam retreat to a bar, where they further bond until they are interrupted by Mark, Dave and Jesse, which sees the group end up swimming at Jesse's mansion with a group of other friends. It turns out that Andrew cannot actually swim, so Sam stays with him in the shallower end. At the fireplace, Andrew reveals to Sam, Mark and Jesse why he was sent to boarding school during his youth: frustrated that he could not make his mother happy, he pushed her when he was a child. In a freak accident, she tripped over the dishwasher that was open because of a broken latch, and hit her neck on the kitchen counter, paralyzing her from the waist down. Jesse and Mark soon leave to attend to a girl, leaving Andrew and Sam by the fireplace, where he soon admits he likes her.

The next day, Mark tells Andrew that he would be tracking down a going away present for him, but needs him (and his bike) as a means of transport to get it. As Andrew was going to spend the day with Sam, she comes along as well. Following stops at a hardware store and seedy hotel, the trio end up at a colorful quarry in Newark. Rain starts to pour down; Mark then leads the group to a little houseboat stationed on the top of the quarry. The inhabitants, who have been employed to watch the area, are also casual antique jewelry dealers. Mark collects the piece. All three begin to head back, but Andrew spontaneously climbs to the top of an abandoned piece of machinery and screams down into the quarry. Sam and Mark then join him as the three scream together down into the quarry. Sam and Andrew then kiss each other. As they reach his home, Mark hands Andrew the piece, which turns out to be his mother's old favorite piece of jewelry. Andrew and Sam retreat to his house, where they spend the night together. Andrew gets up out of bed and approaches his father to finally have their talk.

The morning after, Andrew is saying his goodbyes to Sam at the airport, as he prepares to return to Los Angeles to sort out his life. However, he gets off the plane to tell a crying Sam that he doesn't want to waste any more of his life without her in it.

Themes

After almost a decade of mental isolation, Andrew Largeman is about to embark upon a once in a lifetime journey. His father has been “protecting” him from his own feelings with pills, namely lithium, which are seen “as the symbolic soul-destroying enemy”. The true adventure of the film begins after Largeman reaches his hometown and conveniently forgets his pills back in California. As he talks to a neurologist, who offers him a refill prescription of his mind-numbing medications, Largeman tells of headaches that he is now encountering without his pills. Largeman says that these headaches are better described as lightning storms. These mind storms are intriguing as they are the seedlings of feeling that have since been absent from his inner being. Following suite of the themes awakening and chance, Largeman refuses a refill of internal seclusion. Zach Braff describes the themes of the movie as, “[l]ove, for lack of a better term. And it’s a movie about awakening. It’s a movie about taking action. It’s a movie about how life is short, go for it now. My character says, ‘I’m 26 years old and I’ve spent my whole life waiting for something else to start. Now I realize that this is all there is and I’m going to try to live my life like that’”.

In order for Largeman to get to a point of self-realization, he needs the assistance of the eccentric character, Sam. Sam forces him to revive the fundamental aspects of life that he has repressed since his father began dictating his life into a prescription-guided haze. “I have this theory that your body goes through puberty in its teens, and the mind goes through puberty in your twenties,” he says. “[Large] is dealing with issues that you are going through all the time going into your thirties,” he says of his character. “He’s lost and lonesome which is something I definitely felt in my twenties”. Upon their meeting, Sam and Andrew find themselves in Sam’s room wherein she insists on him performing a unique act. She says that it is important to be the first and only person to do something; a unique movement or sound. To procure such an act is essential for living in the moment.

There is then the monumental scene overlooking the abyss. The scene is one of rebirth. The concept of the infinite abyss is what our lives are all about. This moment, with the rain pouring down upon Andrew, Sam, and Mark, is reminiscent of a baptism as their former selves are renewed. Our inner selves are always striving for it; for self-realization. Although the abyss is empty, essentially that emptiness translates into the infinity of life. Life knows no boundaries and is limitless in the chances and opportunities that present themselves for the taking.

The entire visit has changed Andrew. The conclusion of the film sums up its themes. As he prepares to board the plane, Largeman realizes that he would be going back to monotony. An awakening occurs and the newly acquired knowledge of life’s chances kick in and he gets off the plane to inform Sam that he does not want to waste any more of his life without her in it.

Cast

• Zach Braff as Andrew Largeman
• Natalie Portman as Sam
• Jackie Hoffman as Aunt Sylvia Largeman
• Ian Holm as Gideon Largeman
• Peter Sarsgaard as Mark
• Alex Burns as Dave
• Ron Liebman as Dr. Cohen
• Method Man as Diego

Production

Garden State was Zach Braff’s feature directing and writing debut. The title of the film was originally intended to be Large's Ark - in reference to Braff's character but he changed it because no one understood what it meant. Garden State was filmed on a budget of $2.5 million. Most of the film was shot on location in Braff's home town of South Orange, New Jersey, with filming taking place at Cranford, Livingston, Maplewood, Newark, South Orange, Tenafly and Wallington. Although the majority of the filming was done in New Jersey, filming also took place in New York City and Los Angeles.

Braff has cited such films as Harold and Maude, Woody Allen films, Annie Hall and Manhattan, and the films of Alexander Payne as influences on Garden State.

Music

Further information: [[:Garden State (soundtrack)]]

The music that accompanied the film was hand-picked by Zach Braff. Commenting on the selections, Braff said that "Essentially, I made a mix CD with all of the music that I felt was scoring my life at the time I was writing the screenplay". Braff used many artists he used in other works including his friend Joshua Radin.

Braff accepted a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The film's trailer won an award for best music at the Golden Trailer Awards. The Broadcast Film Critics Association nominated it for best soundtrack.

Reception

The film was first screened on January 16, 2004, at the Sundance Film Festival where it was purchased in a joint venture by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Miramax for USD $5 million, double the film's budget. Fox Searchlight Pictures president Peter Rice said of the film, "Having enjoyed the film immensely, we look forward to working with Miramax to bring Garden State to audiences worldwide." From March until mid July, it screened at other various film festivals until it received a limited release on July 28 in North America. It became only the fourth non-documentary feature to top the chart that year, as calculated by per screen average, since Memorial Day weekend. Stephen Gilula, president of distribution at Fox Searchlight, attributed the film's gradual success to word of mouth and a publicity tour by Braff leading up to the film's theatrical debut. Gilula said, "Zach [Braff] had a cross-country tour, and we [organized] word of mouth screenings, where we had to turn people away. Zach did Q&As following [the screenings]." From late 2004 through mid 2005, Garden State was shown at more festivals and was released in over 30 countries. Despite having a limited release in all its markets, the film was able to gather $35.8 million at the worldwide box office, of which about $26.7 million came from North America.

Garden State has an 87% freshness rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Awards

In addition to being a nominee for the Grand Jury prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Braff received Best New Director from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle's Pauline Kael Breakout Award, Best Debut Director award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and Breakout of the Year from the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

DVD

After its limited release in theaters, the film gained more popularity during its DVD release on December 28, 2004, which includes commentaries, deleted scenes and featurettes.

External links

• Official site
• Official trailer
• Zach Braff's blog
• Garden State at IMDb
• Garden State at AllMovie
• Garden State at Rotten Tomatoes
• Garden State at Metacritic
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