Garden State is a 2004 film written, directed by, and starring Zach Braff. The movie also stars Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ian Holm. The title is a reference to the state where a majority of the movie is set.

The movie was filmed over 25 days in April and May 2003 and released on July 30, 2004. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.

The film is rated R for "language, drug use and a scene of sexuality."

It has been called by many critics to be the film that defines Generation Y. This has been embraced, by and large, by those who have seen it of that generation.

Intellectual Influences

Joseph Campbell

The film is seen by many to follow the structure of the Campbellian monomyth by depicting the protagonist in the Belly of the Whale and then his Rebirth.

Existentialism

Others have noted similarity to Existentialist literature, particuarly the narrative structure of Kierkegaard and direct parallels with Camus' The Stranger.

Soundtrack

The Grammy-winning soundtrack for the film was compiled by Braff; it includes two songs from The Shins, and two decades-old songs from Nick Drake and Simon and Garfunkel. The remaining songs on the soundtrack are by Coldplay, Zero 7, Colin Hay, Cary Brothers , Remy Zero, Thievery Corporation, Iron and Wine, Frou Frou, and Bonnie Somerville .

Plot summary

The quirky film unfolds as a week in the life of its protagonist, Andrew Largeman (played by Braff), a passive 20-something member of Generation Y, comfortably numbed by medication. He's a struggling actor who returns to his hometown in New Jersey after receiving word of the death of his paraplegic mother. Andrew has been heavily medicated by his psychiatrist father (played by Holm) since the age of ten, when he accidentally contributed to the cause of his mother's paraplegia.

He reconnects with several friends he hadn't seen since he left nine years earlier, particularly Mark (played by Sarsgaard). He also meets Sam (played by Portman), an epileptic. They become friends and cautiously initiate romance, despite one another's flaws and things that they don't understand in their environment. Together, in an innocent (but considered by some to be slightly forced and melodramatic) ending to the story, they seem to discover that life is worth living, even when it hurts, and the importance of being with the one you love.

External links

• Official website
• Zach Braff's Garden State Blog
• Information on Garden State from Movies.com
• Anatomy of a Scene, from the Sundance Channel website
• Teaser trailer from Apple's website