The story in Garden State is formulaic enough. In the opening scenes we learn that Andrew Largeman's [Zach Braff /JD from Scrubs] mother has just died, and he hasn't talked to his father in nine years, cause he has been in LA trying to make it as an actor. Now he must go home for the funeral.

So we are all set for the guy in his late twenties goes back from big city to small town where he grew up, tries to make up with his family, hangs out with his old friends and tries to work out exactly who he is, with the help of a cute girl. His friends still call him by his old nickname - Large. It's not original, but it's got promise.

Films like this tend to rely a lot on the main character, who appears in every scene and who the viewer is supposed to associate with. And being writer/director/star Braff has to carry this film. This just about works in Garden State. Braff has a likeable face, but feeling what Large feels is a little difficult for the audience, as he has been taking Lithium for years, so it's been a long time since he has felt anything himself. Braff spends a lot of the film with a vacant smile on his face. Even though his mam just died, he can't cry. Being so passive makes it just a bit hard to empathise with him.

So it's important somebody is all energetic and vivacious and balances things out. In Garden State that somebody is Natalie Portman [Star Wars]. She is quirky, with big brown eyes, a boy's name [Sam] and and she talks a lot. There's a scene where she buries her hamster. So it's to her credit that she is easily the most likeable thing about the film. Her first scene where she says she loved him in that cable film where he played a "retarded quarterback", before realising that maybe the reason he was so convincing is that he is differently abled himself, while all the time he just sits there with a bemused smile on his face, is very well done and funny. You like her. The big brown eyes also help.

It is unlikely she will be doing a Scarlett though. Garden State isn't as cool as Lost in Translation. Nowhere near. Portman's character lacks Johannsen's mature cool, instead going for a still teenager type oh my god! kookiness. I checked and Portman is 24 while Johannsen is still only 20, but you wouldn't think it. And JD/Zach/Large is not in Sophie Coppola's class as a director, although there are some nice visual touches and smart sight-gags involving bad shirts and broken petrol pump handles.

The film slouches along amiably enough for the most part, as Large comes off the Lithium and comes to terms with his past. His Dad [Ian Holm/Bilbo] blames him for his mother's death. His old friends are the usual mix of quirky inventors and slacker grave diggers, and there are parties and an antique motorbike [with room for his old friend and new girl] to ride around in. You're kept interested.

There aren't many plot twists, and there are maybe too many long scenes where the characters sit around and talk, and find it hard to say what they really mean. Then towards the end things get a bit much. Large and Sam actually do go on a journey to a real dark abyss which symbolises the dark abyss inside him which he can't seem to fill. Ah janey, says the audience. Would ye come on.

But, you know, it's not a bad film. As a first time effort at writing and directing and starring from a TV sitcom star still in his twenties, it's pretty impressive. The trendy laid back pop soundtrack is decent with the likes of The Shins, Coldplay and Nick Drake on there. There's some laughs, some tears, and some more laughs. It's a simple story, well acted, and diverting enough in it's own take on a familiar story. Worth a look.