Fails the Bechdel test

Garden State

Name: Garden State
Released: 2004

2004. Directed by Zach Braff, written by Zach Braff.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
14 women characters. 9 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Andrew Largeman is a semi-successful television actor who plays an intellectually disabled quarterback. His somewhat controlling and psychiatrist father has led Andrew ("Large") to believe that his mother's wheelchair-bound life was his fault. Andrew decides to lay off the drugs that his father and his doctor made him believe that he needed, and began to see life for what it is. He began to feel the pain he had longed for, and began to have a genuine relationship with a girl who had some problems of her own.

Released: 20 Aug 2004
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.4 / 10
Metascore: 67 / 100
Awards: 13 wins & 39 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Large 413 lines, man
Sam 181 lines, woman
Mark 122 lines, man
Gideon 49 lines, man
Carol 29 lines, woman
Jesse 29 lines, man
Cynthia 27 lines, man
Olivia 25 lines, woman
Kenny 22 lines, man
Albert 20 lines, man

Full cast, 37 people

Zach Braff as Andrew Largeman
Natalie Portman as Sam
Ian Holm as Gideon Largeman
Peter Sarsgaard as Mark
Jean Smart as Carol
Armando Riesco as Jesse
Jackie Hoffman as Aunt Sylvia Largeman
Method Man as Diego
Alex Burns as Dave
Ron Leibman as Dr. Cohen
Jim Parsons as Tim
Michael Weston as Kenny
Ann Dowd as Olivia
Ato Essandoh as Titembay
Denis O'Hare as Albert
Trisha LaFache as Kelly
Geoffrey Arend as Karl Benson
George C. Wolfe as Restaurant Manager
Austin Lysy as Waiter
Gary Gilbert as Young Hollywood Guy
Jill Flint as Obnoxious Girl
Christopher Carley as Gleason Party Drunk
Amy Ferguson as Dana
Wynter Kullman as Pam
Debbon Ayer as Faye
Yvette Mercedes as Neurology Receptionist
Jayne Houdyshell as Mrs. Lubin
Soara-Joye Ross as Handi-World Cashier
Joe Bacino as Man Having Sex
Seth Michael May as Peeping Tom
Kenneth Graymez as Busboy
Ryan B. Moschetti as Teen in Hallway
Tracey Antosiweicz as Hooker
Ice as Arthur-the-Dog
Magoo as Masturbating Dog
Janine Strafaci as Herself - News 12 New Jersey News Anchor (voice) (archive footage)
Kurt Siegelin as Himself - News 12 New Jersey News Anchor (archive footage)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 64

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 2	0	0
3 to 4	0	0
5 to 6	0	4
7 to 8	0	0
9 to 10	4	5
11 to 12	0	33
13 to 14	22	31
15 to 16	0	1
17 to 18	0	61
19 to 20	4	48
21 to 22	29	49
23 to 24	29	40
25 to 26	9	11
27 to 28	9	10
29 to 30	22	16
31 to 32	40	37
33 to 34	0	32
35 to 36	0	43
37 to 38	27	14
39 to 40	16	23
41 to 42	18	57
43 to 44	0	38
45 to 46	9	47
47 to 48	4	29
49 to 50	0	0
51 to 52	3	17
53 to 54	6	18
55 to 56	12	37
57 to 58	0	5
59 to 60	23	24
61 to 62	3	24
63 to 64	3	6

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 28 are women's.

292 lines from women, 760 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

14 women and 20 men in the cast. 9 women and 13 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 14 of 1,111. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 132 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 26% of the words (3,548), men 74% (9,852). Women have 28% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit D: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Zach Braff (man)
Written by: Zach Braff (man)
Produced by: Pamela Abdy (woman), Richard Klubeck (man), Gary Gilbert (man), Dan Halsted (man)
Shot by: Lawrence Sher (man)
Edited by: Myron Kerstein (man)
Music by: Chad Fischer (man), Alexi Murdoch (man)
Production design by: Judy Becker (woman)
Costumes by: Michael Wilkinson (man)
Cast by: Avy Kaufman (woman)