Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) is a failed actor who returns home after nearly a decade for his mother?s funeral. Years of mood-regulating drugs have left Andrew as an emotionally vacant robot who is unable to fully connect to anything. When he returns home, he is forced to face everything that he has been avoiding, from his traumatic childhood to his high school friends (who seem to be stuck in the same place after all these years). Despite the best efforts of his friend, Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), Andrew can?t seem to pick up where he left off. It?s only when he meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a neurotic girl with a knack for exaggeration, that he finally learns to let down his guard and experience life.
The film manages to be serious yet funny at the same time. While a few of the jokes are more ?cute? than anything else, there are a few laugh-out-loud moments that help to keep the movie upbeat despite some of the more unsettling moments. The jokes are usually very clever, from Sam?s inability to keep her hamsters alive to Mark?s mother?s (Jean Smart) romance with the knight from MedievalWorld, but the humor tends to drop off towards the end of the film -- turning it into more of a dramatic romance. The characters are quirky and funny without being too silly, while Andrew plays as the straight man through most of the antics.
At its core, Garden State is a very realistic portrayal of something we?ve all felt at one time or another -- that we just don?t fit in. Andrew?s reactions to his friends, as well as his father, are genuine, helping to make his character someone everyone can relate to. It?s very easy to relate to Andrew?s feelings of disconnection -- especially those who?ve left their hometown, only to return a few years later.
