Movie Review: 'Wish I Was Here'
- sarahkloepple
- Jul 20, 2014
- 2 min read
Much like his 2004 cult hit, "Garden State," Zach Braff's self-directed/written "Wish I Was Here" packages a handful of quirky scenes laden with self-discovery and raunchy humor. And the overarching theme of bittersweet family drama ties everything up in a neat bow.
In the film, Braff plays struggling actor Aidan, who's in the midst of multiple crises. His kids are thrown out of their Jewish private school because his father (a wonderfully stern Mandy Patinkin) can't afford the tuition anymore — his cancer has returned. Meanwhile, Aidan's hermit of a brother (Josh Gad) refuses to help, hinting at some kind of longlasting father-son tyrst.
The story progresses as the father's cancer does, and as Aidan takes his kids' education into his own hands. He brings them on fields trips consisting of camping at Joshua Tree and test driving Aston Martins.
But Braff seems to be trying too hard to make us feel things. Yes, we cry during the quiet, somber scenes of the father in the hospital — especially when Kate Hudson, as Aidan's wife, is there visiting alone. Then we let out loud, much-needed laughs when Aidan tries to explain the concept of Mr. Miyagi to his six-year-old son only seconds later.
There's no argument that Braff has a knack of depicting real and relatable problems. In "Garden State," his character Andrew was in his early twenties and trying to remember how to be a human being instead of someone so consumed with anxiety and fear. In "Wish I Was Here," Aidan is at the point in many adults' lives where they need to decide to stick with far-fetched dreams or buckle down and pay the bills.
It's just the solutions that get me. They're always too neat and tidy. And Braff cranks out metaphor after metaphor that it becomes tiresome. But that's not to say that the film isn't a worthy follow-up to "Garden State." The kids are a force to be reckoned with, both in their eyebrow-raising language and the actors' abilities to play them. And the surrealness of Braff's spaceman alter ego reminds me of the enjoyable fantasies Braff's J.D. indulged in on "Scrubs."
"Wish I Was Here" is a fine film. It does everything it's supposed to: It makes you laugh, and it makes you cry, sometimes all in one minute, with an apt soundtrack nonetheless (notable songs include "The Obvious Child" by Paul Simon and "So Now What" by The Shins). But it's just one of those movies I'll forget by tomorrow.
