Garden State
February 18, 2007 by thinking girl
I saw Garden State last week, and it’s taken me a week to pin down why I really really hated it, and why my feminist spidey senses were tingling like crazy when I watched it. As usual, Beware of Spoilers if you haven’t seen it and want to and care about it being a relative surprise.
So, I do love Scrubs, mainly because of Zach Braff. And I had been meaning to see Garden State for a while now. But somehow I must have known I wouldn’t like it.
The whole movie is about Zach Braff. His character is screwed up, he hasn’t been home in 10 years, his father the psychiatrist has him all doped up on medication, he’s an actor who had one great role, and his mother has died. So he goes home for the funeral and falls in with old schoolmates who are pretty much losers. But he meets this girl, Natalie Portman. She’s charming and adorable and lovely, and he falls in love with her. And the movie becomes Zach Braff using people, but especially Natalie Portman, to figure out his life.
Natalie Portman is really wonderful. She’s the best thing about jsut about every movie she’s in, and I love her. Here, she was wasted against the backdrop of Zach Braff’s moping blankness as his character tried to get his shit together. And so here it is: This movie represented for me how everything is always about the guy. About his shit, about his fucked-up-ness, about how important he is, about his career, about his family, his movie, his screenplay, his favourite music, him him him. And this movie was just a big pile of masturbatory self-congratulation. Zach Braff made a movie about men using women to “find themselves.” And in the end, I felt bad for Natalie Portman. Not just the character, who was stuck with Zach Braff’s character. But for Natalie Portman. This movie was a disservice to her talent.
So, it sucked. That’s the bottom line. And I kind of think that without the soundtrack, the movie would have been truly exposed for the junk-heap that it truly is.
And what really bothered me about it, is the idea that this guy was on a cocktail of meds for most of his life, goes off them all cold-turkey, and has no ill effects at all, neither physical, mental, nor emotional.
Okay it’s a movie and all, but that’s really stretching it. If the film wants to explore depression, withdrawal from meds might be something they could have explored also.
I haven’t seen Scrubs, but this film left me with the impression that Zack can’t really act. He doesn’t move much and talks in a monotone. Does he think he’s acting like someone who’s depressed? If he does, why doesn’t his behaviour change as his character evolves?
Hmm, sounds like yet another “a**hole gets the girl” movie. Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll pass. JMO –Doug
Sage - hiya! Yeah, totally - not the best portrayal of a guy doped up for the last 10 years or so just coming off his meds.
However, I did have a friend who went off her meds after a long while and didn’t seem to have any problems at all. Could also be that she fell in love with a wonderful man and left her nasty mean controlling husband.
Well, I like Zach on Scrubs. He’s funny. Sometimes just his face makes me laugh, actually. I think the blankness and monotony in his Garden State character was supposed to represent how the medication had numbed him. And apparently, this movie was written out of his own experiences with depression. But yeah, especially next to the unbelievable Natalie Portman, his acting flaws did really show through.
Doug - oh god yeah, skip it for sure. I remember when it came out a friend of mine just raved about it, but I was skeptical. I can’t believe she liked it so much!
Have you seen Natalie Portman in The Professional? That film remains highly controversial because of Ms. Portman’s age at the time it was filmed. It is the only film of hers that I’ve seen, and I almost don’t want to see another film of hers for fear of being disappointed.
So more to the Garden State theme, why do so many men need to figure out their lives? I think many men do, in fact, need to figure out their lives, but I wonder why. I have figured out my life, but I’ll be the first to admit that it took longer than it should have…
CP - yes, I did see that film. It was one of her earlier movies, I think.
I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you see some of her more recent work. She was particularly wonderful in Closer, a favourite movie of mine. I also very much liked her performance in V for Vendetta. Then again, I like pretty much all comic book movies.
Well, it’s not that women don’t also need to figure out their lives - it just seems like men use women to figure out their lives more than the reverse is true. But that’s a broad generalization, so I might retract that at a later date.