Garden State at Pointe Blank: An Analysis
So last night I caved in and watched Garden State - a movie that is on many a person's list of favorite movies of all time (or at least 2004), and I have heard many a review from said persons, all to the effect of, "Ohhhh it's soooo amazing like omg you have to see it LIKE OMG." Well it was something like that. Needless to say I planned on avoiding this like Son of the Mask. However, equal parts curious and bored out of my mind, I popped this in, knowing that I still had something going for me (I didn't pay for it). To my surprise, it wasn't quite the shitfest I thought it would be (hell, I made it all the way through). What did surprise though was the appalling number of similarities this movie had with the 1997 John Cusack movie Grosse Pointe Blank (coincidentally, one of MY all-time favorites). As Ben Stiller puts out more movies in a year than I do journal entries, I figured I'd take the time and give all 3 of you loyal readers a rundown on every similarity I caught, and explain how and why Grosse Pointe is better. Besides, everyone else likes comparing it to The Graduate so I figured I'd try something different. Shall we?
1) Basically, similar plot. John Cusack's character Martin is pretty much forced to go back to his hometown after almost 10 years away, runs into a bunch of old faces that he doesn't really care to see, and in the end falls in love. Zach Braff's character Andrew, on the other hand, is pretty much forced to go back to his hometown after almost 10 years away, runs into a bunch of old faces that he doesn't really care to see, and in the end falls in love. The only differences here: Martin is a contract killer, sent home because his new mark happens to reside in his hometown, and Andrew is a struggling actor, sent home because his mom died. Braff's story is more realistic, but Cusack's hitman is a lot more interesting and fun to watch.
2) Both characters are or were in therapy, and are both quirky and slightly offbeat. I liked Braff in the movie but nobody plays the role of a flawed, offbeat but likeable character like The Cuse. I mean, he practically built his career on it.
3) Both are forced to confront their parents, whom they both have strained relationships with. Cusack finds that his mom now has full blown Alzheimer's and lives in a nursing home, while Braff spends a lot of time avoiding his father (also is psychiatrist), who sent him away to a boarding school and put him on all sorts of drugs. (The father is played by Ian Holm, who is a good actor but has barely anything to do here. Maybe Braff just wanted his dad to be Bilbo Baggins?)
4) Both characters run into their high school "friends", among others, who are all equally (if not more) messed up than they are. Cusack runs into his friend (Jeremy Piven) who wonders where he's been all these years and is now a shady real estate agent. He also runs into another friend who is now an overzealous rent-a-cop, and at one point shows off his gun and asks Cusack his opinion on his performance as a cop. Other unwanted run-ins include one with a former high school jock, now the owner of a car dealership. Braff's character runs into his friend, who wonders where he's been all these years and is now a shady grave digger. He also runs into another friend who is now an overzealous cop, and at one point shows off his gun and asks Braff his opinion on his performance as a cop. Other unwanted run-ins include one with some weirdo who works at a hardware store. Both movies also have the token coke heads.
5) Both characters spend a scene at a cemetery. Cusack visits his dead father, while Braff attends his mother's funeral. Both characters also spend a lot of time driving around town; Cusack in his Lincoln town car, Braff in his motorcycle.
6) Both movies have a major theme of homecoming. Obviously both characters return to their estranged hometowns. Braff comes home and later whines to Natalie Portman about how his house no longer feels like his home. Meanwhile, Cusack comes home and finds that his house was torn down and replaced by a convenience store, and has to spend the remainder of his stay in a hotel. So here are both characters back in their hometowns but without real homes. That changes when they fall in love, which brings me to number
7) Both characters, as stated, fall in love by the end of the movie, and this helps establish their long-lost sense of home. Now Natalie Portman may be hot but I found her character so friggin bizarre that virtually all attraction seemed to go right out the window (although the pool scene helped a little). The interaction and more importantly the story arc between Cusack and Minnie Driver in Grosse Pointe is a lot more interesting and fun, because Cusack's character essentially left Minnie Driver's character waiting in her prom dress on prom night, only to show up 10 years later.
Now, here's a couple more things that in my opinion make Grosse Pointe the superior film.
1) ACTION! As my friend Steve said, it's hard to believe Braff was given full artistic control over his film, and not one alien or monster popped up in the whole thing. Now, does a movie like this need action? Of course not. But GPB one-ups it by staging several awesome action scenes, none of which compromise the film's overall tone and purpose. It's got a fight scene, two shootouts and an explosion, all the while still being a romantic black comedy, and not an actual action film. Cusack gets the girl, but not before shooting several people, bashing a guy's head with a kitchen pot, stabbing a guy in the throat with a pen (and disposing the body in his high school's boiler room) and dumping a television onto Dan Aykroyd's head. What did Braff do? He helped Natalie Portman bury a hamster.
2) BETTER MUSIC. Holy shit I can't stress this enough. Grosse Pointe had music by the likes of The Specials, The Clash, Guns 'N Roses, Queen & David Bowie and Faith No More. What does Garden State give us? Nick Drake and the god damned Shins. "Listen to this song...it'll change your life," says Natalie Portman as she hands Zach Braff her set of hipster headphones. If you consider killing yourself changing your life, then I suppose she's right.
So, how do I wrap this up? Was Garden State terrible? No. It had one or two pretty neat scenes and I did laugh once or twice. As a director, Braff colors the film with some nifty visual imagery. Overall though, I can't understand why everyone loves this movie so much. The characters aren't really developed; they're basically just people with a laundry list of random quirks. They all lack depth and in the end you find yourself not giving a shit about any of them. Additionally, the ending feels forced and cliche'd (hey hey that's something new). But seriously though, the way the rest of the movie plodded about, it would have been better off if Andrew stayed on the airplane (in fact I was rooting for it). But he ran off at the last minute to be with a girl who likes household pets and lies a lot (boy is THAT unique). I can't help but get the feeling that everyone "likes" this movie without actually liking it - that they like it solely because it's a quirky, partially abstract "indie" (and therefore it must be good) film that people think is genuinely creative and deep, and gives some sort of insight to our lives and challenges us by leaving certain things open to interpretation (I just call it not tying up loose ends). I'd venture to say that most of the people who hail this movie as cinematic genius are the same goofs that hail all these vanilla indie-rock bands as God's gift to music, when most of it is really just painfully boring, tuneless shit. But that's another essay. Okay, I'm done herrr. Thanks for reading.
1) Basically, similar plot. John Cusack's character Martin is pretty much forced to go back to his hometown after almost 10 years away, runs into a bunch of old faces that he doesn't really care to see, and in the end falls in love. Zach Braff's character Andrew, on the other hand, is pretty much forced to go back to his hometown after almost 10 years away, runs into a bunch of old faces that he doesn't really care to see, and in the end falls in love. The only differences here: Martin is a contract killer, sent home because his new mark happens to reside in his hometown, and Andrew is a struggling actor, sent home because his mom died. Braff's story is more realistic, but Cusack's hitman is a lot more interesting and fun to watch.
2) Both characters are or were in therapy, and are both quirky and slightly offbeat. I liked Braff in the movie but nobody plays the role of a flawed, offbeat but likeable character like The Cuse. I mean, he practically built his career on it.
3) Both are forced to confront their parents, whom they both have strained relationships with. Cusack finds that his mom now has full blown Alzheimer's and lives in a nursing home, while Braff spends a lot of time avoiding his father (also is psychiatrist), who sent him away to a boarding school and put him on all sorts of drugs. (The father is played by Ian Holm, who is a good actor but has barely anything to do here. Maybe Braff just wanted his dad to be Bilbo Baggins?)
4) Both characters run into their high school "friends", among others, who are all equally (if not more) messed up than they are. Cusack runs into his friend (Jeremy Piven) who wonders where he's been all these years and is now a shady real estate agent. He also runs into another friend who is now an overzealous rent-a-cop, and at one point shows off his gun and asks Cusack his opinion on his performance as a cop. Other unwanted run-ins include one with a former high school jock, now the owner of a car dealership. Braff's character runs into his friend, who wonders where he's been all these years and is now a shady grave digger. He also runs into another friend who is now an overzealous cop, and at one point shows off his gun and asks Braff his opinion on his performance as a cop. Other unwanted run-ins include one with some weirdo who works at a hardware store. Both movies also have the token coke heads.
5) Both characters spend a scene at a cemetery. Cusack visits his dead father, while Braff attends his mother's funeral. Both characters also spend a lot of time driving around town; Cusack in his Lincoln town car, Braff in his motorcycle.
6) Both movies have a major theme of homecoming. Obviously both characters return to their estranged hometowns. Braff comes home and later whines to Natalie Portman about how his house no longer feels like his home. Meanwhile, Cusack comes home and finds that his house was torn down and replaced by a convenience store, and has to spend the remainder of his stay in a hotel. So here are both characters back in their hometowns but without real homes. That changes when they fall in love, which brings me to number
7) Both characters, as stated, fall in love by the end of the movie, and this helps establish their long-lost sense of home. Now Natalie Portman may be hot but I found her character so friggin bizarre that virtually all attraction seemed to go right out the window (although the pool scene helped a little). The interaction and more importantly the story arc between Cusack and Minnie Driver in Grosse Pointe is a lot more interesting and fun, because Cusack's character essentially left Minnie Driver's character waiting in her prom dress on prom night, only to show up 10 years later.
Now, here's a couple more things that in my opinion make Grosse Pointe the superior film.
1) ACTION! As my friend Steve said, it's hard to believe Braff was given full artistic control over his film, and not one alien or monster popped up in the whole thing. Now, does a movie like this need action? Of course not. But GPB one-ups it by staging several awesome action scenes, none of which compromise the film's overall tone and purpose. It's got a fight scene, two shootouts and an explosion, all the while still being a romantic black comedy, and not an actual action film. Cusack gets the girl, but not before shooting several people, bashing a guy's head with a kitchen pot, stabbing a guy in the throat with a pen (and disposing the body in his high school's boiler room) and dumping a television onto Dan Aykroyd's head. What did Braff do? He helped Natalie Portman bury a hamster.
2) BETTER MUSIC. Holy shit I can't stress this enough. Grosse Pointe had music by the likes of The Specials, The Clash, Guns 'N Roses, Queen & David Bowie and Faith No More. What does Garden State give us? Nick Drake and the god damned Shins. "Listen to this song...it'll change your life," says Natalie Portman as she hands Zach Braff her set of hipster headphones. If you consider killing yourself changing your life, then I suppose she's right.
So, how do I wrap this up? Was Garden State terrible? No. It had one or two pretty neat scenes and I did laugh once or twice. As a director, Braff colors the film with some nifty visual imagery. Overall though, I can't understand why everyone loves this movie so much. The characters aren't really developed; they're basically just people with a laundry list of random quirks. They all lack depth and in the end you find yourself not giving a shit about any of them. Additionally, the ending feels forced and cliche'd (hey hey that's something new). But seriously though, the way the rest of the movie plodded about, it would have been better off if Andrew stayed on the airplane (in fact I was rooting for it). But he ran off at the last minute to be with a girl who likes household pets and lies a lot (boy is THAT unique). I can't help but get the feeling that everyone "likes" this movie without actually liking it - that they like it solely because it's a quirky, partially abstract "indie" (and therefore it must be good) film that people think is genuinely creative and deep, and gives some sort of insight to our lives and challenges us by leaving certain things open to interpretation (I just call it not tying up loose ends). I'd venture to say that most of the people who hail this movie as cinematic genius are the same goofs that hail all these vanilla indie-rock bands as God's gift to music, when most of it is really just painfully boring, tuneless shit. But that's another essay. Okay, I'm done herrr. Thanks for reading.