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Title: Jersey Girl (2004)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Betty Aberlin | ... | Teacher | |
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Matt McFarland | ... | Boy #1 |
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Sarah Stafford | ... | Girl #1 |
| Paulie Litt | ... | Bryan (as Paulie Litowsky) | |
| Christian Fan | ... | Boy #3 | |
|
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Victor Chavez | ... | Boy #4 |
|
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William Mace | ... | Boy #5 |
| Raquel Castro | ... | Gertie Trinke | |
| Ben Affleck | ... | Ollie Trinke | |
| Jennifer Schwalbach Smith | ... | Susan (as Jennifer Schwalbach) | |
| Jennifer Lopez | ... | Gertrude Steiney | |
| George Carlin | ... | Bart Trinke | |
| Stephen Root | ... | Greenie | |
| Mike Starr | ... | Block | |
| S. Epatha Merkerson | ... | Doctor #1 | |
Ollie Trinkie is a publicist, who has a great girlfriend, Gertrude, whom he marries and they are expecting a baby but while he is looking forward to being a father, he doesn't lighten his workload. Gertrude gives birth but dies in the process. Ollie doesn't live up to his responsibilities as a father. Eventually the strain and pressure of losing his wife and being a father gets to him and he has breakdown, which leads to his termination. So with nothing much to do he tries to be good father to his daughter, Gertie. He also meets a young woman name Maya, who likes him but he is still not over his wife. Written by rcs0411@yahoo.com
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I've been a Kevin Smith fan for years, but my disappointment with Jersey Girl doesn't come from the lack of Jay and Silent Bob, or the fact that it isn't a typical View Askew film. I knew it wouldn't be that, and I went into the theatre just hoping to see a good film.
Jersey Girl has some nice moments, and some moments of genuine, skillful humor (especially for a musical theatre fan). However, the film as a whole is an enormous letdown for one reason: it's typical. Rather than making another typically Kevin Smith movie, Smith managed to make a typical Hollywood flick. Instead of insight, we get cloying sentimentality; instead of maturity, we get a series of cliche moments with a good-looking cast that just doesn't dazzle for whatever emotional whallop Smith thought the film would pack.
The situation and choices facing Ben Affleck's character are nothing new, and Affleck goes dutifully through the exercises, emoting when he needs to, but never really getting much out. You wind up rooting for him more or less out of the same sense of duty. George Carlin's father is depressingly tame compared to his brilliant standup routine; Jennifer Lopez is sweet but her perfunctory character never really makes any impact on the audience. Raquel Castro plays the absolute cliche end of a film child that she's written with the appropriate sweetness. Liv Tyler's character goes wildly from a toned-down character from one of Smith's earlier films in her first scenes (building up a bit of false hope that there will be something new to this blah exercise) to another cliche character in the later portions of the film. Not much of it can be blamed on anyone except the writer/director, though.
On principle, I have nothing against Smith branching out into other genres of film than those he touched on in his first five; that's an artist's choice, and should be his and no one else's. But Jersey Girl is simply settling for the typical and unambitious in film. If this is an indication of where Kevin Smith's career is heading, then I think he has lost it as a director who bears watching.