State of Mind

[lillibet]

Tonight Jason and I went to see Garden State. It had been recommended to me by a couple of friends--actually, by two people I would never have guessed would like any of the same films--so I was intrigued. It made an interesting counterpoint to Riding in Cars with Boys, which really got to me.

Not that I didn't find Garden State affecting, but it didn't hit home in quite as depressing a manner. Perhaps it was the tone--very calm, with a lot of silences, rather than the frenetic wordiness of RICWB.

Zach Braff did a fine job with the role, but I just failed to find him engaging, which might be attributed to the disconnectedness he is displaying. In many ways, it's a similar role to that of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation, but I found Murray's portrayal of dissociation more sympathetic, somehow. Kudos for the screenplay, however--it managed to be both specific and universal in the way that the best indies hit so well.

It was great to see Natalie Portman doing some real acting again. In a lot of ways, this role is very much like the kid she played in Beautiful Girls, right down to the ice skating. She was quirky and honest and open and lovable--I wish Lucas would let her show some of that as Amidala.

I found Ian Holm sort of distracting. Perhaps because this role is so minimal and hermetic, it's hard not to see him, rather than the character. Jason commented afterwards that he kept thinking "Why, it's Mr. Bilbo!" but I find the role that springs to mind is of the priest from The Fifth Element.

The real find of this movie, for me, was Peter Sarsgaard, playing the stoner gravedigger, Mark. He was charming and driven and lame and loving and cruel in ways I found very familiar and convincing. I'm looking forward to seeing him in Skeleton Key (which I'm gonna have to see because that's the movie that was filming all over New Orleans when we were there and why Kate Hudson was at dinner with us one night).

The one question I have is: does every circle of slackers have a multimillionaire who lives in a huge, cool house and buys the drugs? Is this the next movie stereotype, like the gay neighbor?

Comments

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

Two! Two sterotypes in one!

More Mush from the Wimp

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

infinitehotel posted about this movie in his journal and I made a long response that I wanted to save. It seems that my appreciation for the film has deepened in the intervening month.

"I think most people don't understand that true criticism comes from a deep love of the medium one is criticizing. To criticize movies, for example, you have to really appreciate good film-making and want to see more of it and feel exasperated by sloppiness and poorly imagined or executed work. I was recently accused of "never liking any movie" and went to my Netflix ratings to prove to my own satisfaction that this is an unfounded accusation. On the other hand, it's very true that it is an extremely rare film that doesn't disappoint in any way, that could not have been better.

I didn't love Garden State, but I enjoyed it and found a lot to appreciate in it.

Frankly, I thought Braff's weakest performance was as an actor. I thought the writing was excellent--it reminded me of Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which is high praise in my book. It is a rare film-maker who can use silence as effectively as he does here. And as you say, his direction was excellent. But I was never able to really care about his character.

I loved Peter Sarsgaard. He career seems to be really taking off (he's got five movies in the pipeline) and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. I didn't find Mark to be drifting, but to be poised for commitment--he doesn't know what he wants, but he knows what he doesn't want and refuses to pretend. And in the meantime he's not going to get too worked up about it. I also found him the most believable character--I know several of him and eventually most of them find the job or the girl or the cause that will light their burners, so I believed that he would, too. I don't think Mark wastes a lot of time on regret.

Natalie Portman is always a delight. She seems the most likely heir to the oft-granted title of "the next Audrey Hepburn." It's not that she's especially good, exactly, but rather that she has the magic that makes you want to watch her, want to be with her, want to share that energy. I was amused that the top comment on imdb.com made a point that I've been making about her character--Sam is Marty from Beautiful Girls, grown up now, but still charming and outspoken and hopeful at 26 in the same way she was when she was 12. I was particularly amused by the figure skating connection and had to wonder at that point if Braff was making a deliberate homage.

Sadly, I found Ian Holm's performance mostly distracting. He wasn't given enough screen time or enough depth to become real for me. Jason said every time Holm was on-screen he found himself thinking "It's Mr. Bilbo!" I thought that the resolution scene was stilted, but possibly an accurate portrayal of the kind of confrontation two people so thoroughly steeped in the vocabulary of self-analysis might have. Many people have drawn comparisons between Garden State and Lost in Translation and it is interesting how both use the phrase "going to be okay," a surprisingly effective, low-expectations reassurance.

I didn't find the wacky people who were really experiencing life, rather than observing it (Sam's mom, the folks at the abyss) to be marginalized. I think that most people living in the mainstream are discontented--or perhaps that's just the media telling us that we should be in order to sell us more of their snake oil. It is the people secure in their individuality--the ones who can live with the abyss--who are the least alone, is the message I took away. Not that we're supposed to feel empty, but that we're supposed to acknowledge the fear of emptiness and fill it with something meaningful, rather than hide from it.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

The ending worked very well for me. When they're sitting on the steps and Largeman is feeding Sam the line about needing to work things out on his own I was groaning. She's not actually going to fall for this shit, I wondered. And she was such a brave little soul, trying to figure out how to give him what he needed--if I had a quibble with her performance it was that she seemed too young for the twenty-six she claimed. But when he came back to grab hold of this chance he had found, I believed it more than most happy endings. Yes, there was a sense of "Now what?" but I thought the important thing was that whatever would come next, they had decided how to face it. And that's what life's about--no certainties, no grand plan, just finding the things that make chewing through the restraints worth while.

Perhaps what I liked best about this movie is that a month after seeing it I can still bring to mind the feeling that it evoked and wonder what those characters are up to now. What do you think Sam's done with his apartment? I'm picturing lots of brightly colored throw-pillows, a couple of cats, a parakeet and the iguana abandoned by the guy who moved out downstairs."