Garden State (2004)


Natalie Portman         Sam
Zach Braff              Andrew Largeman
Ian Holm                Gideon Largeman
Peter Sarsgaard         Mark
Jean Smart              Carol
Method Man              Diego
Ron Liebman             Dr Cohen
Ann Dowd                Olivia
Denis O'Hare            Albert
Michael Weston          Kenny
Jim Parsons             Tim
Jackie Hoffman          Aunt Sylvia Largeman
Amy Ferguson-Ota        Dana
Ato Essandoh            Titembay
George Wolfe            Restaurant Manager

Directed by:            Zach Braff
Produced by:            Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher


Andrew Largeman shuffled through life in a lithium-induced coma until his mother's death inspired a vacation 
from the pills to see what might happen. A moderately successful TV actor living in Los Angeles, he hasn't 
been home to the "Garden State" in nine years. But even with 3,000 miles between them, he's been unable to 
escape his domineering father Gideon and the silencing effect he's had on his son from afar. Stunned to find 
himself in his hometown after such a long absence, Large finds old acquaintances around every corner living 
quite unique lives as gravediggers, fast food knights and the panderers of pyramid schemes. Meanwhile, at home, 
he does his best to avoid a long-simmering but inevitable confrontation with his father. By a twist of fate, 
Large meets Sam, a girl who is everything he isn't. A blast of color, hope and quirks, Sam becomes a sidekick 
who refuses to ride in his sidecar. Her warmth and fearlessness give Large the courage to open his heart to 
the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life. 

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Andrew Largeman is a semi-successful television actor who plays a retarded quarterback. His somewhat controlling 
and psychiatrist father has led Andrew ("Large") to believe that his mother's wheelchair bound life was his fault. 
Andrew decides to lay off the drugs that his father and his doctor made him believe that he needed, and began to 
see life for what it is. He began to feel the pain he had longed for, and began to have a genuine relationship 
with a girl who had some problems of her own.

==========

Andrew 'Large' Largeman is returning home to New Jersey for the first time in nine years to attend his mother's 
funeral. A struggling actor in Los Angeles, he's been living under clouds of medication prescribed by his 
psychiatrist father. After drifting through the funeral with the same emotional numbness he's felt for years, 
he reconnects with old friends Mark, a gravedigger, and Albert, a millionaire who invented noiseless Velcro. In 
a doctor's office, he meets ebullient Sam, an epileptic whose lust for life inspires Andrew to feel things that 
his medication long denied him. Over four days, he develops feelings for Sam he didn't know he was capable of, 
and faces up to the resentment his father holds toward him about an accident that happened long ago.