I was a bit septic about this film since I did not like what Zach Braff did with Garden State but Wish I Was Here turned out to be a good surprise. Definitely more meaningful and heartfelt than his previous work.

As in Garden State, the main character of this story Aidan, is an actor who lives in Los Angeles, whose career never crossed mere theater plays and some TV commercials. He continues to fight for his dream and believes that someday he will succeed. The problem is that, that day never comes. Aidan is married and has two children and is a woman is who supports the family. He ends up by being forced to have to teach their children at home because his father, a Jew extremely dedicated to religion that required that his grandchildren attend a private Jewish school, due to a tragic situation can no longer afford to keep paying a good education for them and the only public school available near the area does not have the best reputation. Once all this happens, the life of Aidan is not going to be the same.

Wish I Was Here is the story of the inner journey of a man who did not know for sure what was to be a grown up, have responsibilities, children to educate and deal with bad situations that exist in life. It's a beautiful message about how we should not give up our dreams, but always considering the best every time. It is given much importance to the concept of family in a very touching way, although it could have avoided some of the usual clichés.

Zach Braff gives a good performance. He and Kate Hudson make a good couple on screen and I found Kate Hudson's performance particularly good, different than the genre she have done over the years. On a more serious and balancing role in the film. I hope she continues to choose roles that escape a bit from her usual romantic comedies. The kids of the film are absolutely adorable and talented, Pierce Gagnon was very funny and Joey King who here gave me reasons to start keeping an eye on her (for those that not see who the girl is, she plays Colin Hanks daughter in the tv show Fargo). Mandy Patinkin, who plays Aidan's father had a not easy and very emotional performance brought flawlessly. The only character I couldn't connect at all, perhaps because it was poorly developed was Josh Gad's character, who plays Aidan's peculiar brother.

I found very cool the fact Braff "grabbed" the same kind of character he used in Garden State as if he had carried him until now, ten years later. The similarities of personality between the characters of the two films are evident. Do not know if it was deliberate or not, but it was interesting.

Wish I Was Here is not a perfect film, but that will not take away the shine and authenticity that Zach Braff was able to put in it through the emotion he could transmit to the other side of the screen.

I wanted and expected to like this movie, yet for at least the first half, I did not. Just as I was beginning to completely lose interest (I started to mess around in the kitchen while the movie played) it began to pick up around the 1 hour mark. This movie ended up being a very powerful and moving piece. Aidan's father dies at home from cancer just as my mother did. I didn't necessarily want to see that played out again. Furthermore, due partly to the graying beard, my own father greatly resembles the actor Mandy Patinkin who plays Aldan's dying father, reminding me of his own increasing frailty and inevitable passing. Then there was the contemplation of my own life struggles, trying to find my way in this world, giving up on my dreams and selling out in order to get a job and support myself.

I guess if this movie has a point, it is that if we keep moving forward and remain open to possibilities, then everything will work out someway. Life isn't always easy, especially as a young adult, nor does it go as we planned, but just keep chugging along and everything will be fine. Eventually you find yourself in a place you never expected yet one that is no less wonderful. I guess the Rolling Stones were right; we don't always get what we want, but we get what we need.

Really good watch, could watch again, and can recommend.

Big fan of Joey King ("The Act"), and Kate Hudson ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"), and even Zach Graff ("Scrubs") and Josh Gad ("Frozen") give a great performance.

Unfortunately, while it has comedic elements, it's not a terribly funny movie. It's more like taking a serious situation and presenting it to someone in a very palatable, if obvious fashion.

This is a "life is hard", mixed with "tragic family event" tropes with some nice multi-threading for sub plots.

While it's a nice story of pushing through adversity, it's still a heavy story, a sad story, but (like in real life) it's about getting past the bad to grow the good.

For some reason I could not get into this movie. The movie wants to be a celebration of life in the midst of a dying family member and life difficulties. I think I was irked by the way this movie pretends to include the religious experience in life's difficult journeys, but does not really engage with religion at all.

Yes, there is a likeable character that is religious, but her religious experience is barely acknowledged, and for the most part religion is there merely to provide color and a feeling of niche-ness. The actual substantive claims of the faith and how they interact with difficulties in life are never really explored.

I did notice something regarding the practice of religion. In the movie's family, the grandfather is religious, and the granddaughter is religious --- though not the grandson ---, but the sons are not religious. I.E. the movie seems to think that the children of baby boomers are drawn to religion far more than their parents. This is not the only evidence in popular entertainment of this trend: there were a few episodes of The Good Wife in which the daughter is shown as being far more literate about religion than the mother. Could the trend be or have been true? (In Europe the people who were protesting against gay marriage were young in significant numbers, and the Pro-Life movement certainly trends younger than the Pro-Choice movement). And is the trend over? Is the hunger for religion in the young being fed instead by the surfacing philosophy of gender sameness/irrelevance which permeates our modern society?