I hate romantic comedies. I've said this over and over again. But I don't know why Garden State captured my heart. I guess, in my own opinion, Garden State isn't a romantic comedy but a story about love and more importantly, about life. It's message is universal: we once become lost in our existence and in the whole universe, there is only one person who would make you feel completely whole as if that person is the missing piece that would fill up every emptiness inside you. That is the message of Garden State, and what makes it more amazing is Zach Braff's wonderful portrayal of Andrew and Natalie Portman's Sam. At first look, one might think it's full of just standard stuff, but as you decided to dwell in the film, you would somehow see different things that life is made of, some that hurts, some that makes you shout and cry and laugh at the same time. It is a smart move for Zach Braff to write and direct this film himself, pouring out the twenty-something angst that most individuals feel in that specific age. A feeling of emptiness, a notch below being complete, and that consistent urge to find a place where you can call home, where your heat really belongs. It also did a splendid job to serve as a remedy to most family problems nowadays - that lack of communication and connection. In short, Garden State tells a tale that's very true, heartwarming and beautiful to its core.
The movie shines on such a character of Andrew that lived his 26 years of life fully enclosed and never disclosed to anyone but himself. He seemed so catatonic at some points in time. All his feelings, emotion, ideas had been kept hidden beneath his brain, that sometimes he could feel headaches for it. He decided to go for a doctor and later find out that there's nothing wrong with him. What was actually wrong was 'in him'. Until he went home to attend his mother's funeral and discovers a new found friendship by a free-spirited girl named Samantha, who would change his life forever. The character of Sam was effectively played by Natalie Portman, so effective that it's so impossible not to fall in love with this girl.
Garden State suddenly feels like as if Cameron Crowe directed and wrote it. There's so many elements that only Cameron may have put it to screen. It even reminds me of Elizabethtown but honestly better than the latter one. I shall say that Braff is a talent and he very well infused specific elements that makes Garden State a winning moment. It's so full of life, about searching for one's meaning, one's belongingness and one's other piece. It's warm, it breaks into you and gets deeper into your skin. It also has a brilliant soundtrack worth listening to. I love this film, and I believe in its spirit. It's got a great sense enough to prove most romantic comedies wrong today. It would make us believe that humans aren't really the most emotionally-detached species in the universe, but are and will always be the most emotionally-conscise ones. An thoughtful film that does not dwell in lies but only in truth. This is a romantic comedy, alright - fine. But comedy was subtly played beneath romance. And romance was undeniably tapped into something that is wholly universal - the beauty of life. It would prove us that everyone is weird in their own ways and that the only thing that could cure it is to find somebody else that's weird enough to cure your own weirdness.

Rating: A-