Garden State (a digression into my complicated relationship with Natalie Hershlag)

Here's my theory on Garden State -- Zack "the" Braff hadn't done anything that showed him as moody and deep up to this point in his career, so he wrote a movie where he's a manic depressive returning to New Jersey for his mom's funeral after an unsuccessful run at acting in LA.  Can you get more moody and deep than that?  Oh yeah, and his dad's his psychiatrist.

So, in GS, Braff is the Jewy Jersey Young American.  Ian Holm is his conspicuously English dad (that's weird, right?).  Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey's boyfriend) plays the Braff's goofy local friend.  And, the blond Designing Woman, Jean Smart plays a GILF whose boyfriend works at Medieval Times, played by the dorkiest guy from Big Bang Theory.  (I don't know how I know that, I don't even watch that show).  And Natalie Portman ......

Ah, Natalie Portman --
I so have waxing/waning emotions towards dear Miss Hershlag. 

She used to be totally hot, but then she was all bony in Hotel Chevalier.  I mean, I was able to see how totally skinny she is (major rib cage) -- plus she looked like she didn't know how to smoke but she was smoking like a Waco compound.  So she fell out of the category known as "my type".

I know, a beautiful, exotic yet all-American, smart, and rich: what the fuck is my problem, right? 

She's an awesome actress, of course.  I mean, now that she's an Oscar winner, she's definitely in Mira Sorvino-territory.  So, she's pretty good. 

But, once she filled out a bracket for an NCAA pool I was doing in 2005, and she never paid, and when I tracked her down, she was all, "Oh, I didn't really mean to bet, I just wanted to fill one out for fun."  Which is bull shit because you know if she would've won, she totally would have come to collect -- her Final 4 was good, you know?  But she took Louisville but . . .

I digress.

So, anyway, Garden State has a thing going on -- it's sort of annoying because it doesn't really differentiate itself from other hipster rom coms where all the people are smart but awkward, and they like to do quirky stuff like have conversations in empty bath tubs and ride around on motorcycles with the little side car.

But, Natalie is way cute and good, and Ian Holm -- I'm still tripped out -- but Bilbo's always good.