A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, “Large” hasn’t been home to the Garden State in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he’s been unable to escape his domineering father Gideon (Sir Ian Holm) and the silencing effect he’s had on his son from afar.
Stunned to find himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living quite unique lives as gravediggers (Peter Sarsgaard), fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father.
By a twist of fate, Large meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a girl who is everything he isn’t. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life.
Garden State is a 2004 American romantic comedy-drama film, written and directed by Zach Braff and starring Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, and Ian Holm. The film centers on Andrew Largeman (Braff), a 26-year-old actor / waiter who returns to his hometown in New Jersey after his mother dies. Braff based the film on his real life experiences.
It was filmed in April and May 2003 and released on July 28, 2004. New Jersey was the main setting and primary shooting location. Garden State received positive reviews upon its release and has garnered a cult following. It was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival. The film also spawned a soundtrack for which Braff, who picked the music himself, won a Grammy Award.
Garden State was Braff’s feature directing and writing debut. The title of the film was originally intended to be Large’s Ark, in reference to Braff’s character (note that Albert mentions his own ark in the movie), but he changed it because no one understood what it meant. The title alludes both to the nickname for New Jersey, and to lines from Andrew Marvell’s poem “The Garden” (“Such was that happy garden-state/While man there walked without a mate”).
Garden State was filmed on a budget of $2.5 million. It was filmed over 25 days in April and May 2003. Most of the film was shot on location in Braff’s hometown of South Orange, New Jersey, with filming also taking place at Cranford, Livingston, Maplewood, Newark, Tenafly and Wallington as well as New York City and Los Angeles. Braff has cited such films as Harold and Maude, Woody Allen films (specifically Annie Hall and Manhattan), and the films of Alexander Payne as influences on Garden State.
The film is partly autobiographical, depicting Braff’s own emotions while he was writing the screenplay. He described that “When I wrote Garden State, I was completely depressed, waiting tables and lonesome as I’ve ever been in my life. The script was a way for me to articulate what I was feeling; alone, isolated, ‘a dime a dozen’ and homesick for a place that didn’t even exist.”
The music that accompanied the film was hand-picked by Zach Braff. Commenting on the selections, Braff said that “Essentially, I made a mix CD with all of the music that I felt was scoring my life at the time I was writing the screenplay.” Braff used many artists he used in other works.
Braff accepted a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The film’s trailer won an award for Best Music at the Golden Trailer Awards. The Broadcast Film Critics Association nominated it for Best Soundtrack.
The protagonist’s father has been “protecting” him from his own feelings with pills, namely lithium carbonate, which are seen “as the symbolic soul-destroying enemy”. Zach Braff describes the themes of the movie as “love, for lack of a better term. And it’s a movie about awakening. It’s a movie about taking action. It’s a movie about how life is short, go for it now.
My character says, ‘I’m 26 years old, and I’ve spent my whole life waiting for something else to start. Now I realize that this is all there is, and I’m going to try to live my life like that'”. “I have this theory that your body goes through puberty in its teens, and the mind goes through puberty in your twenties,” he says. “[Andrew] is dealing with issues that you are going through all the time going into your thirties. He’s lost and lonesome, which is something I definitely felt in my twenties”.
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Garden State (2004)
Directed by: Zach Braff
Starring: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm, Peter Sarsgaard, Geoffrey Arend, Jackie Hoffman, Michael Weston, Christopher Carley, Armando Riesco, Amy Ferguson, Trisha LaFache
Screenplay by: Zach Braff
Production Design by: Judy Becker
Cinematography by: Lawrence Sher
Film Editing by: Myron I. Kerstein
Costume Design by: Michael Wilkinson
Set Decoration by: Heather Loeffler
Art Direction by: Laura Ballinger
Music by: Chad Fischer
MPAA Rating: R for language, drug use and a scene of sexuality.
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: July 30, 2004
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