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.