Desperate to please Prodigal Son/Find-Your-Bliss dramedy can’t sustain a tone as its sit-com gags & visual black-outs collide with sentimental friendship reunions when an under-employed L.A. actor goes home for his mother’s funeral. Writer/director/ lead Zach Braff tries to hit THE GRADUATE tropes (its Dustin Hoffman meets Ray Romano with groovy music interludes), but there’s no dramatic energy left in this set up. As the free-spirited kook he falls in love with, Natalie Portman would be a lot more adorable if she didn’t work so hard at it. And while Ian Holm earns points for a respectable American accent as the chilly dad, he comes to grief with a final unplayable touchy-feely scene; pure showboating from Braff as writer. The guy to watch turns out to be slacker pal, Peter Sarsgaard, effortlessly acting everyone else off the screen. The film’s one insight may well have been unintentional: reversing the old template of uptight WASP jolted by encounters with earthy Jews, Greeks, Blacks, whatever. Now, it’s the assimilated Jews who need to warm up.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Instead, check out THE STATION AGENT to see this sort of thing done with some style & honest feelings.
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