“Garden State” goes to the Sunshine State in the warm, if somewhat trite, dramedy “A Short History of Decay.”
A likable Bryan Greenberg plays a failing Brooklyn writer who, dumped by his girlfriend (Emmanuelle Chriqui), decamps to Florida where his parents (Linda Lavin, Harris Yulin) are suffering, respectively, from Alzheimer’s and the effects of a stroke. He slowly learns to right himself by accepting parental quirks and having dates with two more of the beautiful women who gravitate to such movie losers.
Rookie filmmaker Michael Maren’s script isn’t deep, but it’s heartfelt without being sticky, suggesting that the best way to deal with aging parents is to savor every tender frustration while you can.