Garden State

6/10. Watched this Saturday evening on DVD.

There's a whole genre out there of movies like this, about a prodigal child (almost always a young man) who returns to the community in which they were raised to attend a funeral (typically for one of their parents) and are subsequently transformed (usually with the help of a member of the opposite sex five or six years younger than they are).

When I first read about Garden State, I was immediately reminded of The Pallbearer. And when I first read about the upcoming Elizabethtown, I was immediately reminded of Garden State. Hell, even my beloved In My Father's Den is part of this genre (although it's based on a novel that was published back in 1972).

Unfortunately, what writer-director-star Zach Braff (terrific on TV's "Scrubs") has done with this well-worn genre is nothing terribly special.

Garden State is entertaining enough, and it features some good performances. But ultimately it's little more than a string of "moments" which culminate in, rather than lead to, the perfunctory climactic transformation. And these moments are never as compelling as they could be, because they're either conspicuously quirky, or they involve people sitting more or less perfectly still and talking.

Braff may have some special skills as a filmmaker, but they aren't really evident here.