garden state, recently

andrew larjman - baratt?. the broadness of his jaw reminds me of john travolta. but his demeanor is sort of like the fellow in donnie darko. but he seemed cooler in the context of the movie -- lots of people seemed to recognize him, thought he was a big star for playing a MR football player in a TV series. he kind of just stared and the world moved around him.
samantha - natalie portman. she is cute, so i agree with j. eyebrows that could do somersaults almost. well- placed mole, spunky hair. squarish face. distinctive, but not something your mind can linger on. but she was the best supportive gf-type. she's an epileptic.

plot:
larj goes back to his hometown in NJ, from LA, after a phonecall from his estranged father that his mother just died. she drowned in the bathroom - paraplegic. kind of strange, but that wasn't explored. so he goes home. sorta sees his old friends - one's a gravedigger and grave robber, the other invented soft velcro and is rich and bored. he meets sam in the neurologist's office.
so larj's soulseeking. he thinks his ma probably just wanted things to not be an issue any longer. he realizes that he just wants his father to be okay with him to feel, no matter if it's bad. his father just wants everyone to be "happy". [last night conversation with father; put hand on his chest]
sam makes him feel "safe". their romance is slow and sweet. first kiss was after they screamed into the abyss.
so gravedigger friend makes him take him to a hardware store to get $40, a hotel peep show, and eventually a dump -- to find the nicest couple and their baby. they live on a lip of the abyss - to protect it and to explore it. they live in a boat it seems, very cozy. :>
but friend wants to return larj's mother's favorite necklace to him -- one with the little balls that roll around and you try to get them into the (divots)(smaller version of the one in "seabiscuit"). and he talks to sam about his cherished childroom memories playing with the necklace in the bathtub that she drowned in. weird.
so he's leaving for LA from newark. saying that she changed his life, it's more like an ellipsis than a period. she's bawling. and... he comes back and holds her, missing his life and committed to their relationship as a starting point. and it a - and then what? not incredibly romantic, tho it seems like it initially.

setting:
new jersey obviously. suburbia - where people know you. where your ma's friend can make you a shirt that matches the wallpaper in the bathroom they worked on before she died. where the guy in the hardware store will say "i thought you committed suicide". nice big roomy homes, with graveyards for hamsters in the backyard.

psych part:
larj was put on lots of meds (lithium, depakote, ___, ___, ___) since he was 9yo after the accident (pushed his mom and her head went out and caught on a broken latch of the dishwasher. enough to make her a paraplegic). just made the world dull. he was then sent to boarding school at 16yo, and hadn't been back in 9 years.
quit them cold turkey without any noticeable side effects.
psychiatrist dad (note: never treat your own children).

doc part:
waiting room for neurologist - big, looked nice. doc saw him in his office first. talked about the meds, relayed his incident with his best friend's cufflinks in his ex-wife's purse. the exam referred to the Babinski test (socks off). or maybe that was just when they were going to run him thru the CT -- sharpied and all.

soundtrack:
might be good; some good songs at some points. but probably just a benign mix.

comment:
slow moving movie. languid. maybe b/c it was set in NJ? :P
person's quest to find his life. the only thing he's sure of is that he's in love with a girl. that's nice - if you're young, find someone to love.
wouldn't rewatch.

context:
post step 2! :>
that, wine, and dinner with j. nice bike ride to deja view
and another rental for film in medicine for later.

"closer" - saw in store and it seemed interesting? just people and relationships though.
j liked natalie in something before - the prosecutor, the principle, something like that.
- posted by B @ 10:22 PM