Zach Braff’s self-indulgent white suburban odyssey Wish I Was Here was a long time coming. With his much famed—and groundbreaking—call to arms on Kickstarter, the writer-actor-director (of Garden State) raised over 3 million dollars for his new film, touted as an indie revolution and meditation on existence. And while the end result definitely deals with existential issues (to a fault), the sum total is little more than a yuppie rumination on thirtysomething ennui, making you wish you were re-watching American Beauty (or something equally more powerful).

Braff portrays LA family man Aidan Bloom, husband (to an ever so slightly mismatched Kate Hudson) and father to two (Pierce Gagnon and standout Joey King). An actor, Aidan is still holding onto the dream of his twenties, while his wife brings home the bacon; his father, played by a curmudgeonly Mandy Patinkin, pays for his grandchildren’s education, with the caveat that it be the school of his choosing—an orthodox Jewish yeshiva. Early on in the story, Aidan’s father falls ill, and is no longer able to fund the kids’ schooling; thus begins the family’s journey as Aidan decides to homeschool them until the semester is out.

In the scene in which Aidan learns of his father’s illness, Braff (perhaps purposely) chooses to make it all about himself, remarking on how much bad news is befalling him at once: his father has cancer, and he is unable to continue caring for his untrained dog. The cue for the audience, you would think, is that this will be a story of a man who needs to stop thinking so much about himself. But not so: Aidan continues throughout the film so wrapped up in himself and his children, he never once really comes up for air.

One character who truly grows, learns and becomes more compassionate is their daughter Grace, played by Joey King of Oz The Great and Powerful and currently seen in the TV series Fargo. Similar to Shailene Woodley’s well-received turn in The Descendants, King carries much of the emotional weight of the story, successfully imparting a vulnerability and youthfulness that is about to expand and shatter into adulthood.

Hudson, for her part, does well in her scenes, especially opposite Joey as well as a scene in the hospital with Patinkin. With an amazing soundtrack by The Shins, this film boasted a whimsical and exciting trailer. It’s unfortunate that the film itself doesn’t live up to its sizable expectations.