Zach Braff has faced a good bit of backlash ever since he decided to turn to Kickstarter to fund his Garden State follow-up film, Wish I Was Here. Between public anger about a major star using a website intended to help struggling artists and some rather nasty implications about the pretension of the finished product, Braff has had to power through on his vision and hope for the best. Now, Wish I Was Here has an official release date and a proper trailer, and we can all decide if Braff deserves the nastiness that has been thrown at him.
The latest Wish I Was Here trailer improves upon the teaser, making the film appear much less pretentious than initially supposed. Braff is struggling actor and loving father Aidan Bloom, equipped with two adorable and quirky children and an attractive wife (Kate Hudson). Aidan is facing some serious growing pains in the form of his terminally ill father (Mandy Patinkin) and less responsible brother (Josh Gad), resulting in a journey of self-discovery as our hero attempts to find his purpose in life. In other words: it’s tough being an upper middle-class hipster in this day and age.
While the plot still seems just this side of hipster pretension, there’s obviously a good bit of comedy peppered into this story about coming-of-age at the age of 35. Given his penchant for whiny self-indulgence, I’m always skeptical of anything Braff puts his hand to. Nevertheless, the rest of the cast is excellent and the trailer makes Wish I Was Here look pretty fun. Now that the Kickstarter furor has died down, perhaps we should give Braff and his film a fighting chance.
You can watch the latest trailer for Wish I Was Here below and decide for yourself. The film will come to theaters on July 18.