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You've Got to Have Heart. Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) is a semi-successful actor in Hollywood who returns home to the Garden State of New Jersey for his mother's funeral. "Large" hasn't been home in over nine years and there is a serious riff between him and his father. Over the course of four days Large attends several parties, meeting up with many of his old high school chums who are working at a variety of occupations: one is a grave digger, another works as a knight at a Medieval Times, another lives in a mansion after having invented noiseless velcro. While sitting in a doctor's waiting room, Large is introduced to Sam (Natalie Portman), a young girl with a very quirky, personal, and forceful personality. Over the next few days the two share in a series of casual adventures and fall in love, but not knowing how to express that love to each other. GARDEN STATE is the directorial debut of Braff. Braff is best known for his starring role as J.D. in the television comi-drama, SCRUBS. Many people who are fans of SCRUBS don't like GARDEN STATE because the two are two completely different formats and Braff is actually a very talented actor & filmmaker and not just a lucky caricature who has a pretty face. The film is not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a great directorial debut. The movie doesn't really have much plot and instead tends to rely upon style, technique, and meaning. The film has several shots that just in and of themselves are pure art; they are like moving snapshots in a virtual photography gallery. There are also several interesting filmmaking techniques incorporating throughout the picture that shake up the pace and keep things interesting. But the heart of the movie is the meaning behind it all. Large's life is like millions of people throughout the country--he has just been existing in a dream-like, drug-enhanced state since the time he was a child. Excluding the unhappy childhood, his whole life has been nothing but one moment of existence from another. All of that changes when he meets Sam. She causes him to look at things differently and tenders the desire within himself to begin living life, in all of its pain & suffering, joy & sorrow, adventure & mundane. When Large meets Sam, he stops just existing and begins truly living. That idea is full of all kinds of implications and could be seen as a spiritual allegory. There aren't very many experienced filmmakers who can pull together art, technique, and substance in a way that makes sense and is worth watching. Hardly any freshman filmmakers can pull off such a task, but Braff has succeeded where many others have failed. Add in a mix of a beautiful soundtrack (Braff was also the soundtrack producer) and some high-quality acting from Braff, Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard (who plays Large's best friend, Mark) and it makes for one fairly impressive directorial debut.