Jersey Girl Review

"Jersey Girl" reviews

Movie

Jersey Girl

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-09-28 21:36:02

Rating

1.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Director Kevin Smith, who accrued a loyal fan following with his indie hits Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, turns sentimental with this mainstream feature that may prove too sappy for even the most hardcore romantic comedy loyalists.

Story

Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) is a young New York music publicist on the fast track to fame and success, but his ideal life gets ransacked when his dearly beloved wife Gertrude (Jennifer Lopez) dies giving birth to their daughter (Raquel Castro). Now a single parent to a newborn child, Ollie deals with the situation the best way he knows how--by avoiding it. He leaves little Gertie with his widowed father, Bart (George Carlin), to raise in New Jersey and throws himself deeper into his work. But Bart gets tired of playing father to his granddaughter and one fateful morning relinquishes diaper duty back to Ollie, who is about to give an important press conference. Mayhem ensues and poor Ollie is left at the podium holding a crying baby with a stinkin' diaper. Fast-forward seven years to the present, as Ollie has given up the NYC limelight for the Jersey Shore town of Highlands, where he is working as a street sweeper while attentively raising Gertie and sort of seeing Maya (Liv Tyler), the clerk at the local video store. When Ollie finally gets the big break he's been waiting for almost a decade--a job interview returning to the NYC publicity game--he must decide whether to uproot Gertie for a new life in Manhattan or keep it simple in Jersey.

Acting

If there is one thing this schmaltzy film has going for it, it's the cast. Affleck nicely portrays all the changes his multifaceted Ollie goes through: slick publicist, doting dad, good son, best friend, blue-collar worker. But the transformation is pretty unbelievable --can such a jerk truly morph into such a loving guy? Ollie, however, does establish a realistic relationship with Carlin as his on-screen father, Bart. It is Carlin's comedic skills, with his well-delivered, zingy one-liners, that make their banter so entertaining to watch. Also endearing is the rapport between Ollie and Maya. When Gertie interrupts their first encounter, a potentially torrid one-night-stand, the two adults leave it at that and never pick up where they left off. Instead, their relationship blossoms into an atypical and quirky friendship. Castro's all-too-cute Gertie, on the other hand, is not so charming. Sure, she's a bright, young actress, but do we really need another Hollywood movie child who understands sarcasm and rationalizes like a miniature adult? Hate to say it, but this is one film that could have benefited from more Lopez. Shot during the early, giddy stage of their relationship, the two have wicked chemistry together during Lopez's 14-minute cameo.

Direction

Smith's Jersey Girl obviously reflects the changes in his personal life, but marriage and fatherhood may have caused him to lose his edge. Subtlety is sorely lacking here; Smith seems to think the audience needs beating over the head with the movie's touchy-feely stuff. For instance, we see Ollie dancing with Gertie by the jukebox at a diner in a touching scene, but Smith seems to think we're missing its poignancy so he darkens the set and focuses a spotlight on the dancing duo--just to make sure we get it. There are too many overblown, exaggeratedly dramatic moments like this, like when Ollie runs out on an interview to make it to Gertie's school play, abandoning his car on the road and taking off on foot when traffic becomes gridlocked. We see all this melodrama, but the film leaves out the step showing how Ollie and Gertie's relationship blossomed over the past seven years. In the end, Smith's first dramatic-comedy attempt seems sadly misplaced; while we see what he is aiming for--the struggles of a selfish man who must learn to become a loving father--the result is emotionally empty film that substitutes schmaltz for real feeling.

Bottom Line

Director Kevin Smith tries to appeal to a more mature audience with the dramatic comedy Jersey Girl but in doing so, he loses his edge. The result is a film that's too sappy for its own good.

Movie

JERSEY GIRL

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-27 22:16:49

Provider

Review

Up until now, director Kevin Smith has mainly concerned himself with dope-smoking layabouts and comic book shenanigans but this rather personal outing finds him going down more of a family route.

Ben Affleck stars as Ollie Trinke, a talented New York publicist whose life turns on it's head when his wife (Jennifer Lopez) dies while giving birth to their daughter. Pretty soon Ollie's out of a job and back living with his dad (George Carlin) in the small New Jersey town in which he grew up. As the year's pass by, he's still trying to get back into the PR game but will the wisdom of a world-wise video store clerk (Liv Tyler) make Ollie realise what the important things in life really are?

While this movie may have taken a bit of a kicking at the hands of US movie critics, it's still a warm and rather endearing movie. Sure Affleck gets cheesy at times and the whole 'family' message is laid on a bit thick but Jersey Girl does prove that Smith has more strings to his bow than we may have initially expected.

He's struck gold in young star Rachel Castro. This precocious nine-year-old is startling as little Gertie and she's really managed to pick up Jennifer Lopez's mannerisms - a nice skill in one so young. And Affleck and Tyler are able to recreate some of that Armageddon chemistry as they find themselves drawn together.

But let's not forget that this is a Kevin Smith film so there's still the fair share of in-jokes and cameos. Look out for references to comic book vehicles and blink-and-you'll-miss-'em appearances from regular Smith collaborators Matt Damon and Jason Lee.

In short, if you can get past the cutesy tones (and the truly shocking stage show finale), Jersey Girl should warm even the coldest of cockles.