Garden-Stated.

09th May 2006

"..What do you do? You laugh, y'know....I'm not saying I don't cry...but in between, I laugh.. and I realize how silly it is to take anything too seriously. Plus, I look forward to a good cry. It feels pretty good..."

I can relate to Sam of Garden State. The movie seemed to me like a better version of Elizabethtown. Watching this kind of movie makes me miss my high-school-literature-power days. It somehow occured to me that I kind of lost that ability to analyze characters as good as how I did those days. Sure, I miss being in that solitary artsy literature class filled with those eccentric arty farty kids guided by a sarcastic, feminist lady whom I learned to love and so far still is my role model. I miss being her favourite victim to our never-ending life-and-literature discussions. I miss having her hypnotizing us with her feminist stories, together with the unforgettable lessons on how 'fuck' does not after all have to be rude. I miss having to play Rita as we did Willy Russell's Educating Rita, and all those character analysis that came after. I miss having her criticizing my poetry and haikus as I felt defeated only to discover that she was right; I struggled too much with rhymes that my message came second.

Right. And my point is...

So whilst I enjoyed Garden State, I also found that need to analyze the characters. It's one of those movies which naturally leave you with that need to interpret the hidden messages because some of the scenes seem metaphorical (plus the fact that I'm a sucker for indie-jiwang movies filled with lots of chemistry and messages about life & love). I liked the way Andrew Largeman's character grew from the beginning til the end. And the chemistry between him and Sam? It was very much felt right from the time his freaky dog-magnet-self made her giggle. Okay, maybe not. Perhaps it started when she asked him to listen to The Shins. And from then on, chemistry all the way... (Or maybe, I get a little too mushy and sentimental at these things). But hats off to Zach Braff, he managed to make audiences like me feel the chemistry right from the beginning of the boy-meets-girl scene. Then everything else went on perfectly too. All the right elements at the right places. Enough humour here and there (although, knowing me, I gelak-macam-nak-mati at all the anjing scenes, tsk). The messages about family, friendship and life were spot on. The songs shall be on top of the list (in fact I knew I'd like the movie once it started off with Coldplay's Beautiful World)...and the sad parts also flowed well. Might be a bit slow, but I guess that's how these movies portray their messages. I found Elizabethtown interesting and artsy, but pathetically slow (not recommended for general viewers unless you have loads of patience and loads of pendirian-artsy or something along those lines)...and Garden State is not at all slow compared to it, so BRAVO!