Garden State (film)
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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 title is a reference to the film's main setting and primary shooting location, New Jersey. It was filmed over 25 days in April and May 2003 and released on July 28, 2004. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival. The film won Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.
The film centers on Andrew Largeman (Braff), a twenty-something actor 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, at his mother's funeral. Largeman gets reaquainted 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.
Garden State was well received by critics and is considered a major success for Scrubs actor Zach Braff as it was his feature film debut as a director. The film also spawned a popular soundtrack for which Braff, who picked the music himself, earned a Grammy award.
Plot summary
The film opens with an airplane going down. Unlike everyone else in the cabin, Andrew Largeman appears numb. The scene fades into Andrew’s room, as he awakes from the dream. His room is seemingly blank, characterised by sterile white walls and sheets, and his lack of personal belongings. Also, a fairly important plot point is the presence of multiple prescription pills in his medicine cabinet, filling up the entire unit. A telephone call diverts to Andrew's machine, where his father, in some distress, tells Andrew that his mother has just died, and that he needs to return home. No response is shown from Andrew as the message finishes.
After leaving his workplace, a Vietnamese restaurant, the struggling actor leaves Los Angeles and returns home to the state of New Jersey. At his mother's funeral, Andrew stands away from the main ceremony, watching from the side. 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 estranged father. He tells his father of his random headaches and gets booked a doctor's appointment. He also speaks with other guests from the funeral, some who treat him with a degree of pessimism, as his absence has spanned almost a decade. Later that night Andrew discovers his old motorcycle, complete with sidecar, and proceeds to speed around the quiet streets of his old town. That is, until he is pulled over by a policeman, who actually turns out to be another old friend, Kenny, much to his surprise. Andrew 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. He is offered cocaine but declines, although he does take Ecstasy. Throughout the party, he barely moves, despite the wild activity of those around him. During a game of spin-the-bottle, a beautiful girl named Dana straddles and kisses him. The subtle signs of his reaction mark the first emotion he has shown since leaving his medication in Los Angeles.
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, another patient's dog starts rubbing against his leg. The only other onlooker in the room, Sam, giggles at him, before she offers her help to persuade the dog to leave (by asking him to kick it in the genitals - she treats her three Dobermans at home in a similar fashion). 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 medication back in Los Angeles, but turns down the opportunity for a new prescription, hinting that he may not even have a real need for the drugs.
Andrew returns to Sam's house, he watches her youth iceskating video at her mother's request. It is then revealed that Sam has some form of 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 ended up in a wheelchair, as she fell back onto a dishwasher door, which was open because of a faulty latch. 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 morning after, Andrew is saying his goodbyes to Sam at the airport, as he prepares to return to Los Angeles, despite Sam's pleading with him not to go. Andrew tries to explain that he is not ending the relationship but has to return to Los Angeles to figure things out, but Sam starts to cry. Andrew tells Sam that she has changed his life, and that this is the beginning of something really big, he kisses her and departs. Andrew takes his seat on the plane, Sam is in a phonebooth crying by herself when Andrew returns to her and tells her that he does not want to waste anymore of his life without her. The film closes with Andrew asking "So what do we do? What do we do?". The couple hold each other and kiss.
Cast
- Zach Braff as Andrew Largeman: Previously most well known for his role as Dr. John "J.D." Dorian in the television show Scrubs, Braff plays the lead character, Andrew Largeman who returns home in New Jersey after receiving news of his mother's death.
- Natalie Portman as Samantha: Sam is a local girl whom Braff meets in a waiting room. Natalie Portman was Braff's first choice for the female lead but he thought he would never get her. It was announced in early March that Portman would be starring in the then-titled Large's Ark.
- Peter Sarsgaard as Mark: Sarsgaard, who previously received praise for his roles in Boys Don't Cry and Shattered Glass, plays Mark, a hometown friend Largeman gets reacquainted with. Mark is a gravedigger and pothead, living with his mother, but "in no hurry" to move on with his life.
- Ian Holm as Gideon Largeman: Holm plays Andrew’s father, Gideon. As Andrew has been absent for a number of years, the relationship between the two is a major plot element.
Reception
The film was first screened on January 16, 2004, at the Sundance Film Festival. Upon release at Sundance, the film was purchased in a joint venture by Fox Searchlight Pictures and Miramax for US$5 million, double the 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 the North America. From late 2004 through to mid 2005, Garden State was shown at more festivals and released in over 30 countries. Despite having a limited release in all its markets, the film was able to gather $35,825,316 at the worldwide box office, of which about $26.7M came from North America.Upon release, the film drew comparisons with the The Graduate. Premiere Magazine writer Peter Debruge wrote that "Not since The Graduate has a movie nailed the beautiful terror of standing on the brink of adulthood with such satisfying precision". Garden State would form a special relationship with members of the generation Y, though some were critical of the film being target-specific. It was not without its share of extremely negative reviews. Rene Rodriguez of the Miami Herald wrote that "[The film] may not define an entire generation, but it has a sharp eye for the passive aimlessness that can take hold when young adults realize there's no handbook on how to find purpose and meaning in life".
After its limited release in theatres, the film gained more popularity during its DVD release on December 28, 2004, which includes commentaries, deleted scenes and featurettes. The film was released into the home entertainment market in January of 2005, it held a position on the outskirts of the top ten rentals for its opening weeks.
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.
Production
Garden State marked Zach Braff’s feature directing and writing debut. The film was written in bits and pieces during Braff's college years and it was not until 2000 that he began piecing them together. This process took three months, during which Braff wrote intensively. Although some of story seems too odd to be true, Braff claimed that about 80% of the film is based on true experiences, both his and other peoples'.On a budget of $2.5 million which had been financed by Gary Gilbert, Garden State was filmed over 25 days in April and May 2003. Most of the film was shot on location in Braff's home state of 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.
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". The film's budget limitations meant that obtaining all the songs Braff wanted for the film proved difficult, but Zach Braff felt that the soundtrack was so integral to the script, he sent a copy of it with every script he sent out.
The music in the film features a number of indie-rock artists, notably The Shins. In an early scene, Sam passes Andrew a headset which is playing the song "New Slang" by The Shins as she says "You gotta hear this one song - it'll change your life." A second Shins song, "Caring Is Creepy," is also featured on the soundtrack. The presence of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Only Living Boy in New York" on the soundtrack has been cited by some as evidence of another connection to The Graduate. Commenting on the soundtrack's importance to the film, Sponic Zine wrote "Braff did a masterful job of choosing songs that exemplified the emotional subtleties in the film...he put together a group of songs that complement each other perfectly and, when put together into one album, create something amazing, almost as if they never should have been apart"
Zach 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.
Themes
The themes present in Garden State revolve around the development of Andrew Largeman. One of the recurring themes is that you only have one chance at life, and you must take that chance now, in the present. The characters comment on this, the earliest example being when Sam tells Andrew to perform an original movement, even though at the time, Andrew did not fully believe in what she was saying.Come the end of the film, Andrew's outlook on life has changed. After finally holding discussions with his father, Andrew expresses his desire to start living his life now, and asks his father to do the same, despite any problems that may be in their lives. For one of the first times in the film, Andrew makes a spontaneous decision to not get on a plane back to Los Angeles, and instead, stay in where he is, and live his life now, rather than trying to sort out whatever he needed to do in Los Angeles.
See also
References
External links
OfficialOther
- [Full transcript]
- [Teaser trailer] from Apple's website
- Anatomy of a Scene: [Garden State], from the Sundance Channel website
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