In the move Garden State Andrew Largeman returned home for his mother's funeral for the first time in a decade. Having been overmedicated for years, Andrew was numb to his feelings and the world around him. He decided to leave all his medicine behind when he went home; he thought that he wanted to reconnect with his feelings that had be lost for so many years. The coming of age of Andrew Largeman is illuminated through his emotional transition and reconnection to the pleasures and pains of the world around him.

At the beginning of the movie Andrew is completely numb to the realities of life. Void of any emotions and personality, he is passive to the world around him. The movie opens with a chaotic shot of passengers on a plane that was ultimately plummeting into the ground. The camera then zooms in on...