Movies |
Garden State
directed by Zach Braff
By
Published: Jan 01, 2004
Category:
Comedy
Zach Braff has been the star of a popular TV show called “Scrubs” for three seasons. Butler ‘s missed it. ( Butler believes in the Auberon Waugh theory of TV: “Television is not to watch. It is to appear on.”) So after seeing “ Garden State ” — the movie written and directed by and starring Braff — Butler did some homework. Because Butler needed to understand: How does a TV actor come to make the most charming film of the summer?
Answer: He started young. As Braff’s bio tells us, his first influence was his father, who acted in community theater in South Orange, New Jersey” “I was 8 years old and on opening night when the curtain closed and the lights went up, it was the most exciting thing I’d ever seen.” He went to an acting camp, got spotted at 11, won his first notable role at 14 (in a television pilot co-starring a teenaged Gwyneth Paltrow), appeared in films you wouldn’t remember, did Shakespeare at New York ‘s Public Theatre. At Northwestern University ‘s film school, where Braff studied acting, he also wrote and directed short films. And then came “Scrubs.”
In “ Garden State ,” Braff writes from knowledge — he plays Andrew Largeman, a young actor who’s had a bit of success in Los Angeles (as the retarded football quarterback in a made-for-TV movie). He’s “between roles,” waiting tables in a Japanese restaurant when he gets The Call from New Jersey : His mother has died. And back East he goes, leaving his medication behind.
“Home,” a Beat poet said, “is where you hang yourself.” So it is for Largeman, who hasn’t been back for 10 years. (The movie explains why, one dribble of information at a time; Butler won’t spoil your fun and Reveal All). His friends have changed: One got rich from an invention, one digs graves (and robs them), one’s a cop. And then there’s Natalie Portman, the charmingly chronic liar he meets in a doctor’s office.
Romantic comedy? Not at first. Every emotion’s blocked for poor Largeman — when he squeezes out his first tear, it’s a moment to savor. But the humor is bent, and infectious: most of these kids are stoners, going nowhere, savoring the moment’s absurdity from as many angles as they can. To the latest alternative music, of course.
In his blog, Braff confides: “When I wrote ‘ Garden State ,’ I was completely depressed, waiting tables and lonesome as I’ve ever been in my life. The script was a way for me to articulate what I was feeling; alone, isolated, ‘a dime a dozen’ and homesick for a place that didn’t even exist. I guess one of the cool things about the success of ‘ Garden State’ is that…there are so many people who can relate. And as lonely as you ever feel, you are not alone.”
What Braff misses: Everyone feels alone, everyone suspects he/she is doomed to live in Outcastville. That’s why the audience for this sly, surprisingly emotional movie isn’t just 20-somethings. Even at Butler ‘s advanced age, those feelings resonate. As do the jokes.
To buy the SOUNDTRACK of “ Garden State ” from Amazon, click here.
