garden state must rate amongst the most contrived and pretentious film of all time . the plot be a simple one and involve a young man return home after his mother death and discover love . but really and the plot isn not important . what be important to zach braff writer and director and and star be that he be able to hang from the plot all the necessary accoutrement of an indie or arty film . we therefore be present with endless cute and quirky character and scene that do not exist for reason of plot or character development and but simply to give some artistic credibility to the film ( à la wes anderson or so braff hope ) . unfortunately and somewhat astonishingly and braff have not only fool many on imdb and but also some critic who really ought to have know well . of course and braff gratuitous use of the quirky alone do not make garden state a bad film . what really make garden state a stinker be braff script . he simply do not have the writing skill to carry this film off and and the dialogue and characterisation be abysmal . braff often have to resort to blunt devise and symbolism to achieve what he can not achieve through the writing . for example and the numbness of the braff character be show to u by his indifference to an impending plane crash ( this can not be work into the plot and and so have to take place in a dream . ) and later he be show fight back against his circumstance by scream into a bottomless abyss ( life equal a bottomless abyss and very clever mr braff ) . those two scene must rank amongst the most ludicrous and contrive ever see on a cinema screen . on the plus side and the acting be passable despite the lack of material for the cast to work with ( by which i mean a script ) and and i do admire natalie portman for her effort a the love interest a character so badly write and implausible that she be little more than a mindless doll that braff mould into his fantasy woman . it apparently take braff 3 year to write the script for garden state ( 3 year to write a script this bad he really be inept . ) . hopefully therefore it will be some time before he make another film .