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Garden State

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Garden State

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Summary

Comedy drama written and directed by Scrubs star Zach Braff, and co-starring Natalie Portman. Troubled TV actor Andrew Largeman has been living in LA for nearly a decade, numbed by a steady diet of antidepressants. Though estranged from his father, he returns to his New Jersey home for his mother's funeral and at last begins to face up to his personal demons.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Dave Aldridge

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.

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7.4/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameAndrew LargemanZach BraffGideon LargemanIan HolmDr CohenRon LeibmanDiegoMethod Man SamNatalie PortmanMarkPeter SarsgaardCarolJean SmartOliviaAnn DowdAlbertDenis O'HareKennyMichael WestonTimJim ParsonsAunt Sylvia LargemanJackie HoffmanDanaAmy FergusonTitembayAto EssandohRestaurant ManagerGeorge C Wolfe

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Crew

rolenameDirectorZach Braff

Details

Theatrical distributor

Buena Vista

Released on

2004-12-10

Languages

English

Guidance

Swearing, drug abuse and sex scenes.

Available on

DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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