Garden State
- Title: Garden State
- IMDB: link
Garden State is one of those films I missed in the theaters and hunted down on DVD after a number of people had recommended it to me. I’m so glad I did! Zach Braff’s first time as writer/director produces a truly great romantic comedy with a heart bigger than even an infinite abyss.
Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) leaves his struggling acting career and returns home for the first time in nine years to attend his mother’s funeral. Andrew is disconnected from his family, and life in general, through a variety of medications that create an overall malaise. The death of his mother and his return home begin a series of events that allow Andrew to reexamine his life and start to live again.
On his return to New Jersey Andrew meets up with old friends Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) and Jesse (Armando Riesco) and has an unexpected encounter at the doctor’s office where he meets Sam (Natalie Portman).
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My First Wedding is a study in contradictions. It’s a story of a shameless guy who pretends to be a priest to get a girl into bed, and it’s a sweet love story. It has a manic comedic energy but delivers some quiet truths about fears, relationships, and love. It’s a look at how we want the people we love to be honest with us, though not all lies are bad, and how all of us just want someone who loves us so completely they would be willing to do anything, no matter how outrageous, to win out hearts.
Imagine Me & You is an interesting film. It’s a love story without almost any heat or sex. Instead it focuses on the romantic and emotional type of love. Can a film like this work? Well, kinda’. Rated R because of the subject of lesbian romance, the film probably should have earned a PG rating as it’s good fun for the whole (liberal) family.
Hollywood loves contrived love stories with insane stipulations and “humorous” misunderstandings. Well I’ve got a little love story for you that knocks off the conventions of today’s chick flicks and presents an engaging, sweet, and enduring love story (between a man and his sex doll no less!).