3D's Need to See

My need to see movie for you this week is the 2004 film “Garden State.”  Here’s a movie that I missed in theaters and only discovered on DVD.  I loved it so much, but when I went to tell people about it I found I had a hard time describing it.  The difficulty lay with trying to categorize it.  Some people refer to it as a comedy, and it is funny.  It’s one of the best examples I can think of for the “quirky romance” genre, but it is also at its heart both a melancholy and uplifting drama.

Consider this description:  ”Garden State” is the story of an overly medicated, emotionally numb actor (Zach Braff) returning to his home for the first time in years to attend the funeral of his mother.  He reunites with his estranged father (Ian Holm) and an old friend (Peter Sarsgaard), but his true adventure begins when he meets an unusual young woman (Natalie Portman) who helps fundamentally change who he is.