(Cert 15, 102mins): Starring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm. Directed by Zach Braff.

Andrew "Large" Largeman (Braff) moved 3,000 miles across country to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams of stardom and to escape his domineering psychiatrist father, Gideon (Holm).

Nine years after deserting the family nest, Large is a moderately successful TV actor who shuffles through life in a lithium-induced daze, popping pills to keep the harsh realities of the world at bay.

But when his mother commits suicide and Large is compelled to venture back home for the funeral, he is forced to face up to life and, with the intervention of free-spirited compulsive liar Sam (Portman), begins to open up his heart again.

Garden State marks the directorial and screenwriting debut of actor Braff, best known as Dr John 'JD' Dorian on the hit medical sitcom Scrubs.

This is an exquisite first effort, a smart, funny and bittersweet love story in which events unfold at a deceptively gentle pace.

The script is beautifully structured and Braff really gets under the skins of his characters, exposing their pain and desires.