Brandon at Random Reviews

I’ve been meaning to rewatch this one for ages. I like Zach Braff a lot, I absolutely adore Natalie Portman 😍. I don’t remember anything about this other than Braff standing in a room wearing a shirt that perfectly matches the wallpaper. That’s it, we’ll in addition to Braff’s character being quiet and unenthusiastic.

Braff’s character Andrew Largeman comes home when a family tragedy befalls him and he runs into a wide, or even Garden, variety of old friends and acquaintances who haven’t seen him in years. He hangs out with a bunch of them and has some high school level experiences with drugs and interactions with people. He crosses paths with a girl he went to school with but they didn’t really know each other I guess. He starts to spend a lot of time with her while he is in town.

There is a lot of mental health commentary during the film as our protagonist sees his psychiatrist father as well as another doctor. There is a lot of discussions about medications and such and the main character shares some of his history and desires to “take a break” from his daily doses. Really felt relatable.

Braff surprisingly is willing to hang out with a lot of his old friends despite seeming the real introvert type. He slowly lets Portman’s character and then others know more about his real backstory. He clearly had a fucked up childhood and all that, and anyone he talks to didn’t know his story, which seems truer to the introvert style. They all do some adventuring and see different places and see different people. It’s kind of interesting. Kind of.

This flick does instill some semblance of hope, like how a person With a mental illness could turn around their way of thinking and how their mind has a tendency to keep them down. It also means there’s a chance someone like me could land a Natalie Portman type potentially, even though I know Zach Braff may be slightly better looking than me, but still.

This one is on Paramount+ but other than that you’ve gotta pay to rent or buy.

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