Garden State turns 20. Natalie Nirvana

Natalie Portman has been my favorite actress for almost 30 years now. It's a fandom that has long since settled into her just being my favorite actress, but during some periods in the past bordered (or crossed it) on fanatical.

The last truly through the roof era of Natalie fandom began with Garden State.

Obviously back then I was dialed in completely to all of her projects, so I always knew when she was doing something. I don't have an exact recall for when this particular movie first hit my radar, but I know I didn't know what to make of it. 

She was starring in a movie directed by Zach Braff. Who the hell was Zach Braff? I knew OF Scrubs, but didn't watch it. I only watched it when Mandy Moore was on it ("that is SO funny").

It was a pivot to indies. Natalie had done all studio fare up til now. And as summer 2004 went on, she had really had just one significant role (Attack of the Clones) in 4 years. I was still helping run a Natalie message board at this time. I craved new content.

And as summer 2004 was going on, I was not in a great place mentally. It was a pretty bad time. I needed something like a new Natalie Portman movie.

So naturally I was there opening day for Garden State.

And it was EXACTLY what I needed, even more than I maybe understood at the time.

Natalie is not the lead of the movie. Braff himself is the lead, a semi-successful actor returning home for his mother's funeral. He's kind of a morose blank slate. His dad (Ian Holm) is distant. It's clear that the family dynamic isn't good.

Natalie's Sam doesn't show up until about a half hour in. And that's it. She completely takes over the movie with her peak adorability performance. Sam is not a person who exists in the real world. I'm sure she qualifies to be one of those much maligned manic pixie dream girls.

I don't care. I can't tell you how sublime it was to experience this performance the first time. Credit to Braff for realizing what few ever have, that Natalie can be very funny on screen. She's always been this way in interviews, but so rarely has she had the chance to do it on a larger scale. And it's not just watching her with hearts in my eyes. She's really funny in this, completely letting her goofy side reign. Yet still nailing her more serious moments. I know she got nominated that year for Closer (see you in December) but she should have been a double nominee. This is unquestionably a pantheon-level Natalie performance and in terms of just what's most purely enjoyable it might even be #1. 

And here she was playing this basically dream girl, who is right there for this guy who is going through some form of depression or at least something along those lines, and helping break him out of that. I mean, the parallel for me was obvious. I did kind of have my own Sam shortly after this, and while that ended in disaster, I fully understood and related to this in the movie.

I still do. I still find this to be a very relatable film for me, any time I'm "in it." If I were inclined to use such terminology I could call it a comfort film. It makes me feel good, and not just for the major nostalgia anything 20 years old would.

Garden State does have things going for it besides her royal Natness.

Again, I wasn't at all familiar with Braff heading in, but this is one of my all time favorite directing debuts. There are points where it may have some of that aggressive quirkiness that a lot of indie level comedies had back then, but nothing that ever bothered me.

Braff is kind of stiff because of character reasons, but does give an excellent performance and gets to be funny and charming. Peter Sarsgaard is very good as an old friend who is the other sort of co-lead for much of the film.

There's a very odd Method Man cameo, and also a little pre-Big Bang Jim Parsons. It's well cast down to the small parts. I really like the guy in the hardware store who pitches his get rich scheme.

The movie got a lot of attention for its soundtrack, a very mid-2000s indie vibe collection for sure. I do own the CD of it.

This has stayed among my favorite movies of that year and maybe all time. And it got good reviews at the time and was a solid hit. But somewhere along the way a lot of people turned on this thing. I know the internet is not always a good reflection, but there are scathing reviews all over Letterboxed. And Braff's subsequent films, which I liked a lot, got blasted for even existing. 

I suppose that Garden State was a product of its time, and maybe you had to be there. I don't know. I was there. I'm glad to have been there.