A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.
- Awards
- 13 wins & 39 nominations
- Gleason Party Drunk
- (as Chris Carley)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaNatalie Portman was the only member of the cast to wear a safety harness on the crane in the quarry. Because of her size, the crew was afraid she would slip and fall.
- GoofsIn the restaurant scene near the beginning, when the snotty customer asks for bread, Andrew Largeman replies they have none and explains this is because it is a Vietnamese restaurant. In fact, because of the French colonization of Vietnam in the mid 19th Century, French baguettes are a common staple in Vietnamese cuisine and any good Vietnamese restaurant would most likely have them in their kitchen.
- Quotes
Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone.
Sam: I still feel at home in my house.
Andrew Largeman: You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place.
Sam: [cuddles up to Andrew] Maybe.
- Crazy creditsAfter the title of the film there are no opening credits because Zach Braff hates opening credit sequences and thought they would take away from his movie.
- Alternate versionsAlthough the film was shot in the Super 35 process, the VHS version entirely Pans and Scans throughout the entire film as if it were shot in Anamorphic Widescreen instead of properly framing it for Full Frame as most Super 35 films are.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Anatomy of a Scene: Garden State (2004)
And that's why this movie works. In comedy, the worst thing you can do is try too hard to be funny. "Garden State" falls squarely in subtle, almost deadpan territory... meaning there aren't any big sight gags, slapstick or knockout punchlines.
In that respect I'd put it in the genre of "movies like Bill Murray would act in" except there's no Bill Murray. I'm referring to flicks like Coffee & Cigarettes, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, which is essentially saying it's like a Wes Anderson film, or maybe Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World, Art School Confidential). There's a lot of visual storytelling, as in quirky symmetrical shots, stationary cameras on meticulously arranged sets, or a surreal vibe punctated by the camera slowly rising into the sky.
The story is something like famed French existentialist Albert Camus would write if he did comedy. A late-20s, emotionless, estranged son (Zach Braff) returns to his hometown to bury his mother. He seems devoid of all sentimentality as he wanders around meeting all sorts of crazy (and I mean crazy) characters from his past. Whether he's being nearly shot to death by an overenthusiastic cop, or molested by a hot blonde at a party, his range of emotion barely budges between bored and slightly perplexed. Then he meets his antithesis, a 20-something girl (Natalie Portman) whose range of emotion is somewhere between very amused and insanely happy.
It's the delightful contrast between these 2 characters, and their great on-screen chemistry, that turns an otherwise brooding sarcastic comedy into a really entertaining treat.
Another thing that really defines this film is the way every character, even the minor ones who only have 1 scene, are so bizarre and interesting that you feel like an entire movie spinoff could be made of each one. These characters include: 1) the grave digger who makes his real living by doing questionable things at the hardware store; 2) the grave digger's hot mom who is sleeping with her son's sworn enemy from high school; 3) the kid who got rich from inventing "silent velcro" and who now spends his time doing absolutely nothing; 4) the West African immigrant who is studying criminal justice and is obsessed with figuring out which dog is pissing on his phone; 5) the strange "Guardian of the Abyss" whom I won't spoil for you; and the list goes on.
The second half of the story focuses on a bizarre suburban quest the 3 main characters undertake, almost like in "Stand by Me" but with grownups and maybe a pornographic peepshow or two (btw the location of the climactic scene, "Kiernan's Quarry", is a real place--or at least it was until it got filled in & converted to condos a few years ago).
But as strange and nonsensical as it sounds, these are in fact "true stories from suburbia" as Zach Braff says. The entire film is a compilation of stories that happened to him and others in his small Jersey town growing up. "Garden State" has a magical way of bringing these seemingly random vignettes to our attention, making us understand the epic nature of obscurity.
So no, there may not be crazy car chases, bank heists or wacky jewel capers (...oh wait, actually there sorta is 1 wacky jewel caper), this film delivers a really entertaining ride from start to finish.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Tiempo de volver
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $26,782,316
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $201,115
- Aug 1, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $35,825,316
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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