ZOLOFT NATION

Garden State **

A struggling actor (Zach Braff) comes back home to suburban New Jersey after the death of his mother, and tries to confront the life he left behind nine years ago. Making his directorial debut, Braff is clearly going for some kind of low-key twentysomething generational statement. He's done his cinematic homework. The film is loaded with the kind of precious moments that you cherish from your favourite generational statement movies. (The Graduate? Check. Harold and Maude? Check.) The problem is that Braff isn't yet a filmmaker. He hasn't figured out the trick of connecting those moments to a character, to a story--anything--to give them weight. He hasn't figured out that it's the context that makes them memorable--not just the dreamy pop-songs and liberal use of slo-mo. That said it's not a total disaster. Best known as the star of TV's delightfully zany Scrubs, Braff does a pretty good job directing himself. Even playing a character numb on antidepressants, he's still a winningly engaging actor. But as a writer he hasn't given much for his talented costars to do: Natalie Portman in particular is making a curious career for herself working overtime trying to fill-out under-nourished roles. And you'd never know from his performance here that Peter Saarsgard is one of the most exciting emerging talents in American cinema.