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Dom Robinson reviews
Touchstone Home Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: BED 881620
- Running time: 98 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: 4 languages available
- Subtitles: 10 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: Deleted/Extended scenes, Making of Garden State, Outtakes/Bloopers, Soundtrack promo, Two audio commentaries
Director:
- Zach Braff
(Andrew Henry’s Meadow, Garden State, TV: Scrubs)
Producer:
- Pamela Abdy, Gary Gilbert, Dan Halsted & Richard Klubeck
Screenplay:
- Zach Braff
Music:
- Chad Fisher
Cast:
- Andrew “Large” Largeman: Zach Braff
Sam: Natalie Portman
Mark: Peter Sarsgaard
Dave: Alex Burns
Kenny: Michael Weston
Jesse: Armando Riesco
Ian Holm: Gideon Largeman
Tim: Jim Parsons
Carol: Jean Smart
Dana: Amy Ferguson
Dr Cohen: Ron Liebman
Karl Benson: Geoffrey Arend
Diego: Method Man
Albert: Denis O’Hare
Faye: Debbon Ayre
Garden State is how New Jersey is referred to, the hometown of this film’s writer/director Zach Braff, best known for his portrayal as J.D. in Scrubs, and also the lead role he takes as Andrew “Large” Largeman, an actor trying to make it big in Los Angeles, mainly at present by taking parts in mediocre dramas, also trying – and succeeding – in keeping away from his family as he hasn’t been home in nine years, until an important situation presents itself and he must return.
Andrew goes back for his mother’s funeral, after no communication with his father in some time. He purposely forgets his medication which he’s been taking for so long in his life that he’s not even sure if it’s necessary, and thus begins a road trip through a sleepy suburban town in New Jersey. He meets a girl called Sam (Natalie Portman, right, with Braff) purely by fate, he avoids talking to his father, played by Ian Holm, as much as he possibly can, and he hooks up with old friends such as gravediggers Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) and Dave (Alex Burns). I have to add, too, that Jean Smart, who plays Mark’s mum Carol, is rather a MILF 😉
As the movie progresses, we get to find out how Andrew’s life turned out the way it did, through the stories told along the way. There are no flashblack clips, just brilliant writing. It’s a low-budget, very accessible film and you really want to track the progress of the developing friendship between Andrew and Sam.
The soundtrack helps define the movie as one that defines a generation. The music includes I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You by Men in Work lead singer Colin Hay, who also performed an acoustic version of Overkill for an episode of the consistently excellent sitcom Scrubs, as well as the class slow track, Waiting For My Real Life To Begin. Another connection with the sitcom is that the girl who plays Dana (Amy Ferguson) also had a cameo in a bar in the season 4 episode, “My Last Chance”.
Garden State is one of those rare films you can feel yourself really enjoying while you watch it. It contains many clever, engaging and insightful moments that make you remember events in your own life, just as it does in similar moments in Scrubs. You won’t have gone through the same things Andrew has, but everyone returns to their roots at some point and looks at the changes that have occurred. I could list other things that happen in the film that give you the same feeling, but to do so would give spoilers about the content so I won’t do that.
Suffice to say, this is the kind of film that makes you reminisce and bring back feelings of different kinds, just as The Breakfast Club did 20 years ago. Even though the topic was entirely something else, both are about working out and taking the right path in life – something we should all attain to do.
On a final note, any scene where Jesse features and talks feels like a scene from a Grand Theft Auto game, the way he moves from side to side, sometimes waving his hands about. This seemed very eerie at first until I checked the Internet Movie Database and found he plays Officer Hernandez in the latest title, set in the fictional town of San Andreas.
The picture is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and there’s no complaints with that. In fact, the expert 2.35:1 framing from Braff’s feature-length directorial debut is a huge visual treat with little tricks like the water taps in the airport toilet, all the classyness of which will be lost when cropped to 16:9 on TV. However, as it was filmed in Super 35 the matte could be opened up so it doesn’t look so bad, but it still wouldn’t be as tight the framing as the cinematic ratio. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is superb for music and atmosphere throughout, the tracks selected hooking you in before you realise they have and then they carry you along. Magnificent.
The extras begin with 16 (count ’em!) Deleted and Extended Scenes (32 mins, 2.35:1 letterbox), all with commentary from the crew members listed in the second audio stream mentioned below. Many of the early ones are brief and could easily be inserted back into the main feature without extending it too long, but a later one such as with his father does go on too long to fit comfortably back in as we already get the fact they don’t get on like they should.
The Making of Garden State (28 mins) is an engaging featurette and one of the few I’ve watched all the way through, but why isn’t it chaptered in the slightest? Still, on the positive side we learn that this was clearly a very personal film for Braff and I only hope he can follow it up with something equally perfect. The Outtakes/Bloopers (3½ mins) are worth a quick look and then comes a 30-second Soundtrack Promo Spot for the rich collection of music blended together in this movie. Strangely, the subtitles for the extras are available in any other language except English. Why?
Finally, there are two audio commentaries. One from Zach Braff and Natalie Portman, the other with Braff, Director of Photography Lawrence Sher, Editor Myron Kerstein and Production Designer Judy Becker.
On top of that, the dialogue is in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and an English audio descriptive track option, while the subtitles are in English (with a hearing-impaired option), French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Portuguese and Dutch. There are 24 chapters which is a decent amount for this movie, and the menus have some animation (film clips) and music from the film, but it’s very repetitive.
Finally a note about the DVD cover. Atop this review is the UK release, which does make sense once you’ve seen it, but the Region 1 DVD (right) has a far better one and is much more likely to grab you than the one we got which is really rather crap at getting anyone’s attention even if it is taken from a pivotal scene in the film.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.