Garden State

I final­ly saw Gar­den State, and did­n’t like it at all. I can for­give the slop­py edit­ing, but for me the char­ac­ters were all absolute­ly life­less, and the sto­ry was like stale arti­fi­cial sweet­en­er. I think the movie inspired dead­ness in me because I in no way con­nect­ed to the lives or prob­lems of any of the char­ac­ters. I’ve nev­er been in love, so the love sto­ry seemed trite [per­haps this rea­son is why I don’t like romance movies], I’ve nev­er been med­icat­ed with mood-adjust­ing chem­i­cals, so I can’t con­nect there, I’ve nev­er been estranged from my high school bud­dies, no con­nec­tion there; I’ve nev­er done drugs, no con­nec­tion… And that is just super­fi­cial­ly. Every main char­ac­ter seemed paste­board cut-out high school fresh­men. At least, if it is con­sid­ered a com­ing-of-age sto­ry for a 26 year old then per­haps that is why it seemed like every­one was so imma­ture to me. I grew up a long time ago. Maybe I’m just grouchy too. In any case, did­n’t like the movie.