It is a well known axiom that Natalie Portman cries in movies, but the image of the actress wracked with sobs has never felt all that convincing. Every time her face starts scrunching up, and every time she bares those pearly whites before letting loose a wail of grief, one gets the powerful, overwhelming feeling that this is an actor acting, not a character feeling something. Never has this been more evident than in Zach Braff's Garden State, especially when Portman's character Sam stages a funeral for her pet hamster. This scene is a rare moment in Garden State where some of the emotions don't seem forced. Braff underplays his character beautifully here, especially when Andrew admits to Sam that his mother has just passed away. Portman on the other hand immediately begins to blubber, sprouting off profound reflections like: "It's so tragic. Isn't it? It's like real life tragedy or something." The vapid nature of these lines is then enhanced by Portman's bizarre crying expressions, which feature characteristically leaky eyes and outrageous eyebrows that look like check marks. It's all just frankly unnecessary: the scene is supposed to be about Andrew's emotional disconnect, which could have still been conveyed without turning Portman's Sam into a hammy caricature of emotional "free-spirited-ness." Yet, Braff went with what was easy, capitalizing on Portman's perpetually tearful face to produce the required contrast between the characters. Unfortunately and ironically though, this made the scene significantly less involving. It revealed Braff's intentions to use the actress for her ability to cry first, and for her ability to build a character second. It would have been a more mature and rewarding scene if Portman could have toned the crying down, or just scrapped it all together.