Garden State

As many of you, the first time I watched the Teaser for Garden State I fell completely in love with it, and immediately played it again, and again, and again. I've seen it so many times it's unbelievable.
Then the Trailer came, with two new awesome songs (more on that later), and this time the characters spoke, and the little they did speak stuck in my head too. Specially Natalie Portman's speech about doing something unique.
Like this movie is.

Zach Braff has created something truly magical, something that lets you shivering, and that put all your feelings in motion. Yes, Garden State is a very special experience.
I had the pleasure of seeing an Advance Screening of the movie back in the first weeks of July, followed by a Q&A with Zach Braff, who not only Directed and Wrote the movie, but he also stars in it, and his performance, as well as his co-stars', is pure. The kind that is making many twenty-somethings say "that's me".

The performances in the movie are all magnificent.
Zach Braff, nothing like his J.D. from Scrubs, is this guy, Andrew Largeman (Large) who has been medicated since a very young age (by his father btw), and slowly starts discovering, while coming home to NJ after 9 years for his mother's funeral, what life is.
His face starts numb and lifeless, but when the movie ends, it's filled with life and love.

I make to make a strong emphasis on Natalie Portman's performance here as Sam. After her much hated by everybody portray of Senator (and before that, Queen) Amidala in the Star Wars prequels, she plays a girl here that is full of weird characteristics that makes her totally lovable. She's a delight to watch and makes you smile every time she talks, and cry every time she cries and wish you could be there for her.

Peter Sarsgaard plays Large's friend Mark. Excellent performance by Peter as a very laid back young man that as he says, "is not a hurry". He works a grave digger but he has plans for the future, which will be very bright thanks to one of his hobbies.

Ian Holm is Large's father Gideon. As mentioned before, he's the one that has kept Large medicated all his life (he's his psychiatrist after all) and he's a very cold man. He blames Large for something that happened long ago, and has never been able to deal with it. His face is troubled and filled with anger.

The movie would really feel different without the Soundtrack, handpicked by Zach from his favorites groups like indies The Shins and Frou Frou, and classics like Simon & Garfunkel.
The music really speaks in these scenes and make for a truly amazing Soundtrack (available here) that makes you really feel what the characters feeling themselves.

This is really amazing movie, one of my favorites of the year and one that I've watched repeated times already, and plan to watch many more in the future. And I'd love to see Zach receive an Oscar nomination for his story, which is truly what this movie is all about, selfdiscovery, and love.

PS: the movie is currently in around 600 theatres (hopefully more soon) nationwide and you can find the list HERE. The movie opens in the UK (and then the rest of Europe) on November 26th.