The 2004 film Garden State starring Zach Braff evokes the same sentiment as the ancient Korean proverb, "a turtle travels only when it sticks its neck out," which conveys the importance of taking risks and experiencing personal change by exiting one's comfort zone.
The movie documents one young man's experience as he comes to terms with the death of his mother and tries to develop a new and more involved approach to life. Garden State begins by emphasizing the protagonist, Andrew Largeman's, apathy through a dream in which he sits on a plane that's about to crash and remains unafraid and unmoved.
Largeman's father is a psychiatrist who has been attempting to protect his son for his whole life through the regular prescription of antidepressants and other mood elevating pills.
"I'm 26 years old, and I've spent my whole life waiting for something else to start. Now I realize that this is all there is, and I'm going to try to live my life like that," Largeman says.
Braff, who starred as Largeman and wrote the script, explained to People magazine that the film itself is about experiencing an awakening.
