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Garden State (2003)
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The puppy-dog charm and sharp comic timing of Scrubs star Zach Braff are very much to the fore in this, his first major leading role. But it's his talents behind the camera as writer and director that really impress. The story is familiar enough: an actor is forced to re-examine his rather empty, aimless life when he returns to his home town in New Jersey for the funeral of his mother. But Braff's thoughtful, mature script neatly sidesteps most of the obvious clichés, while as a director he shows a fine eye for offbeat composition. The performances are uniformly excellent too, particularly Natalie Portman as the quirky local girl that Braff befriends, and Peter Sarsgaard as his old grave-digging schoolfriend. It falters near the end, but this is still a fine directorial debut. DA
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| Contains swearing, sex scenes, drug abuse. |
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Tell us what you think
Email us at rtfilmcomments@bbc.co.uk to tell us what you think of this film. Your comments may appear in Radio Times magazine.
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Running time
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98min
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Country of origin
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US
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Genre
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Comedy Drama
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Alternate title
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Large's Ark
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Zach Braff
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Theatrical distributor
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Buena Vista
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UK cinema certificate
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15
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UK cinema release date
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December 2004
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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