Zach Braff has strangely been a bit absent after winning the hearts of hipsters with his breakout hit Garden State, then going on to star in NBC's "Scrubs." Apart from a handful of minor roles since his peak in the mid aughts during "Scrubs," he seems to have disappeared. After a successful crowd-sourcing campaign though, he's back both starring and directing in his new film Wish I Was Here.
The film is fairly typical of Braff fare. Playing a somewhat decent but also kind of unlikable 30-something at the moment of a life crisis, he must realize his role in all of this, come to terms with everything, and push forward in a responsible and adult fashion. If this sounds familiar, it's because that kind of is the basic plot of Garden State, The Last Kiss, and Scrubs - only this time, he's a little older and has more responsibilities. Now, Braff's character Aiden is married with two children and a fledgling acting career. Unlike previous pictures where Braff plays a character more or less self-sabotaging, here, Aiden is both that and sabotaging of others. His wife Sarah (Kate Hudson, who does a great job) is essentially stuck trying to pay the bills and keep everything together while her husband fails in his career in other responsibilities.
Everything comes to a head when Aiden finds out that his father is dying from terminal cancer. The Blooms are a family rich with strife. Aiden and his brother Noah grew up in their father's shadow and both appear to have failed in his eyes. Their father was apparently so critical that Noah simply refuses to visit or even help Aiden when he finds out about the illness. Noah, like Aiden, is fairly self-involved as well, doing what makes him happy regardless. The only real difference is that his life of underachieving is one that harms no one. There is no one else dependent on him, so he can afford to live his life however he wishes.
Aiden rallies to keep everything together. Though he can't afford to keep his kids in school and he's powerless as his wife deals with inappropriate behavior from a co-worker, he keeps showing up to visit his prudish and mean father and argues with Noah to get him to visit. He's also trying to be a better father while struggling to come to terms with the fact that his acting career isn't much of a career. All of this, of course, set around an indie soundtrack reliant on The Shins.
Here's the thing: if you liked Garden State and "Scrubs", then odds are you will like Wish I Was Here. Emotionally driven, Braff relies quite a bit on the same tricks heavily utilized in "Scrubs." This includes the typical Braff narration (though mainly it bookends the film) and the heavy-handed speeches. Then of course, there's the deep reliance on music. At one point, there is a non-stop sequence in which three totally different songs transition from one to the other to enhance the emotion, as if the scenes themselves couldn't do the talking. Braff actually does have a pretty good ear and matches songs up to scenes in a way that usually does enhance the feeling, but that sequence midway through the film almost feels like a joke where he isn't quite sure how he wants you to feel and for how long. There's almost no breathing room.
The subject matter is intense though, and he mostly does a good job navigating it. The scenes with Aiden and his family visiting his dying father are among the most poignant and tough to watch things (in the right ways). Aiden and Sarah's kids are being sweet and goofy, but he can't help but be mean, even on his death bed. Eventually, Sarah gives him a speech that turns him around. This is followed shortly by a speech that turns Noah around. There are a lot of speeches that turn people around.
There's a strange fantasy element scattered throughout the film too. Every once in a while, starting from the very beginning, they cut to shots of Aiden in a space suit running away from a shadowy figure in a cloak. Perhaps this is his fatherly responsibilities? The film opens up with such a scene with Aiden narrating that he and his brother used to pretend to be spacemen who would save the day. These scenes though are too scattered and too brief to really fit in with the rest of the film. It's also a bit jarring when it happens. While one can certainly appreciate Braff's desire to make a film without heavy studio oversight, perhaps it might have helped to have someone to say, "This doesn't really work."
A well acted film with a number of things that don't quite work, it's still a solid film. My guess is that the people who have already turned on Braff will hate it while the people who jumped on board later will love it. It's certainly not a bad film and it deals with an inherently emotional and interesting subject matter, but it doesn't always handle it well and sometimes winds up overly self-absorbed.
But then, that's always been Braff's MO to an extent. It's one of the reasons why he's actually quite compelling. He doesn't play the purely charming, heroic, likable guy. In practically everything he's in, he plays a somewhat unlikable, self-absorbed guy. And who of us these days isn't that?
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