Garden State Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Garden State Blu-ray Movie Review

Love in bloom.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 10, 2014

If, as has been suggested, Garden State is culled from the real life experiences of the film’s star, writer and director Zach Braff, it’s easy to understand why Braff frequently has such a perplexed, sometimes hangdog, expression on his face. Judging by the series of almost surreal events that unfold in this charming but odd movie, Braff’s life is (to coin a term) bee-zarre. Garden State depicts a coming home tale of sorts involving Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), a New Jersey native who, like so many other dream chasers, has ended up in Los Angeles in hopes of kick starting (sorry, Braff fans) an acting career. Andrew has actually had at least a little success, but he’s still emotionally roiled, as evidenced by a strange dream that begins the film, and further shown by his medicine cabinet stocked full of prescription anti-depressants and other mood stabilizers. A halting voicemail from his father alerts him to the fact that his mother has died and he’s needed back home. It’s obvious from the message that Andrew’s relationship with his dad is strained, to say the least. That sets the film off on its rather peculiar odyssey, where Andrew does indeed journey back to Jersey, reuniting with a bunch of his high school buddies while at the same time beginning to fall for a young woman named Sam (Natalie Portman). Garden State is extremely idiosyncratic, but it’s also finely observed, generating considerable interest, if only sporadic comedy, from a host of unusual characters. If the film’s attempt to wrap Andrew’s family dysfunction up in a neat little Freudian package is frankly a fairly weak link in an otherwise pretty sturdy chain, Garden State still provides some nicely nuanced writing by Braff that proves he is adept at crafting distinct and distinctive characters who are grounded in reality even if there’s an air of the surreal surrounding them.

The brief but telling dream sequence which opens Garden State is a testament to Braff’s writing skill, but also to his collaborative spirit. The scene depicts Andrew dreaming he’s on a doomed plane, one which is surely about to go down in flames, as evidenced by its rocky flight and the incredibly panicked passengers who surround Andrew. Andrew, however, is more or less nonplussed by the whole thing, a fitting window into his heavily medicated psyche. He gazes up at the call button only to see an answering machine—a late addition during editing that was not in Braff’s script but which acts as a perfect transition to a waking nightmare where Andrew hears his estranged father divulge that his mother has drowned. Within just a few minutes, Braff has brilliantly set up not just Andrew’s character but his home environment as well.

Once the film segues to New Jersey, things get decidedly weirder. His mother’s funeral contains some patently bizarre performance art and the gravediggers turn out to be two high school buddies of Andrew’s, including Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) and David (Alex Burns), both of whom are impressed by Andrew’s nascent success in La-La land and who invite him to a hip and happening party that’s planned for that evening. A drug and alcohol fueled night ensues, which is capped by one of the film’s oddest yet most charming sequences, where Andrew wakes up to the clanking noises of Tim (Jim Parsons), a fast food worker who is clad in a suit of armor for his job. It turns out Tim is in a May-September (or at least late August) romance with Mark’s somewhat dilapidated mother, Carol (Jean Smart). Mark is not at all pleased by this situation and a tense interchange at the kitchen table is only ameliorated once Tim agrees to leave. Suddenly Andrew remembers his father had set him up for a neurologist appointment due to some troubling headaches Andrew had been experiencing, and arriving at that appointment finally introduces the other main character, Sam (Natalie Portman), who delights when Andrew is manically humped by a seeing eye dog in the waiting room.

A bit of back story is revealed in Andrew’s meeting with the neurologist, giving the first clues to what will ultimately explain not only his estrangement from his father but his medicine cabinet full of prescription drugs. It’s a perhaps too facile denouement for what is otherwise a rather sharply realized portrait of odd but honest feeling human behavior. It frankly takes a while for even this conceit to fully play out, and in a way it’s inconsequential, for the real charm of the film continues to be the almost hallucinogenic odyssey of Andrew and Sam as they segue from peculiar character to peculiar character. As irrational as it may sound, Garden State therefore plays almost like a wacky mash up of indie spirit with a surreal hero’s quest film like Fellini Satyricon.

The funny thing about Garden State is that it perhaps could have done with less of the overt melodrama with regard to both Andrew’s family history as well as some perhaps less troubling background vis a vis Sam, for what really works in the film is seeing Andrew come to terms with the fact that even if he isn’t the King of Hollywood, he’s at least moved on from a dead end life, something many of his friends have not. This aspect, coupled with the extremely charming if perhaps too rote romance between Sam and Andrew, are what give Garden State so much of its sweet natured appeal. A film this resolutely quirky doesn’t need to rely on somewhat cliché ridden gambits like Braff sometimes delves into, but that’s about the only false step in this generally extremely captivating and affable film.

Garden State Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Garden State is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is a good if not spectacular looking high definition presentation, one that preserves the lo-fi look of the film with an organic looking digital reproduction of the original's sometimes quite noticeable grain field. One or two brief spikes in noise show up in very low light environments, but otherwise this is an artifact free presentation. Colors are solid if not spectacular looking (a lot of the film plays out in kind of drab environments, so things never popped to begin with). Braff has intentionally played with his palette and filtering here, no doubt wanting to visually analogize Andrew's emergence from drug induced zombiefication, and the early part of the film is therefore not as rife with fine detail as later parts of the film. Generally speaking the appearance here is kind of gauzy and soft looking. Contrast is quite strong and overall fans of the film should be reasonably pleased if not totally blown away by this high definition upgrade.

Garden State Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Garden State's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 really springs to life when the ubiquitous source cues are utilized, but there's also some good effects like the panning roar of Andrew's improbable motorcycle (with sidecar) that highlights several scenes. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and the track boasts excellent fidelity throughout.

Garden State Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Garden State (480i; 28:30). While this is a pretty standard EPK, it does have the added benefit of some above average behind the scenes footage, as well as some fun interviews.


• Outtakes/Bloopers (480i; 3:20) are window- and pillarboxed within a 1.33:1 frame with timecode captions.


• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Writer/Director/Actor Zach Braff, Director of Photography Lawrence Sher, Editor Myron Kerstein and Production Designer Judy Becker (480i; 31:38) are in the same video format as the Outtakes.


• Commentary by Writer/Director/Actor Zach Braff and Actor Natalie Portman. This is a rather sweet commentary, with Portman acting almost as a moderator to ply information out of Braff. This is the more anecdotal of the two commentaries, but probably the better listen overall.


• Commentary by Writer/Director/Actor Zach Braff, Director of Photography Lawrence Sher, Editor Myron Kerstein and Production Designer Judy Becker. This commentary tends to delve more into the filmmaking process, with little tidbits like the aforementioned decision to add the answering machine to the plane crash sequence. It's surprisingly well mannered considering how many participants are involved, with little if any competitive talking.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:12)

Garden State Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Garden State isn't a perfect film, but it's hugely enjoyable, buoyed by an almost palpable chemistry between Braff and Portman and elevated by Braff's highly idiosyncratic take on these characters and their environment. I personally could have done without the dime store psychoanalyzing that comes into play late in the film, but that qualm is more than overcome with the sweetness that permeates the rest of this outing. This new Blu-ray offers a noticeable upgrade from the DVD, though it's not going to win any awards for being reference quality video. The audio is great, and some of the supplements are quite winning. Recommended.