Jackson Booth-Millard
To be honest, I don't know of the other movies written and directed by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) that don't feature Jay and Silent Bob, so I was hoping that this one would be worthwhile. Basically in New York City, Oliver "Ollie" Trinke (Ben Affleck) is a powerful media publicist and PR in the music industry, he meets and falls in love Gertrude Steiney (Jennifer Lopez), who soon falls pregnant. Gertrude sadly dies during childbirth from an aneurysm, to avoid his grief Ollie buries himself in work and ignores his new daughter, Gertie. Ollie's father Bart (George Carlin), who also lost his own wife many years prior, takes time off from work to take care of Gertie, but eventually Ollie lives up to his responsibilities as a single parent. Under the stresses of looking after a baby, including diaper changes and constant crying, Ollie trashes his client Will Smith, then known as the Fresh Prince, who was releasing Independence Day, in front of a group of reporters. Unfortunately, this costs him his job, so he moves back with his father in New Jersey, he apologises for ignoring Gertie, attributing his public outburst to his grief. Seven years have passed, Ollie has become blacklisted by all New York City's public relations firms, he now works as a civil servant in the borough, and Gertie (Raquel Castro) is now is in elementary school. At the video rental store, Ollie strikes up friendship with one of the clerks, graduate student Maya Harding (Liv Tyler), who probes him about his love life. After hearing that he has not had sex since the death of Gertrude, Maya offers to have sex with Ollie, but they are interrupted by Gertie before anything can happen, but Maya becomes a part of their lives. As part of his job in the borough, Ollie speaks to a group of outraged citizens to win approval for a street in the neighbourhood to be temporarily closed for major public works, he is successful, and he realises how much he misses public relations work. He contacts his former protégé Arthur Brickman (Jason Biggs), who sets up a promising interview, but the prospect of moving back to New York City creates tension among Ollie, Gertie, Bart, and Maya, especially as the interview is the same day as Gertie's school talent show. Gertie shouts at her father, saying she wished he had died instead of her mother, he claims he hates her right back, saying she and her mother took his life away, he immediately regrets this and tries to apologise, but the damage is done and Gertie storms off crying. A few days later, they try to patch things up, Gertie accepts that they move to New York, Ollie goes to the interview, and has a chance encounter with Will Smith, who has no idea who Ollie is, they have a conversation about work and children, after which Ollie is persuaded to skip the interview and leave. Ollie rushes to make it to the talent show, where a majority of the children have chosen to perform "Memory" from the musical Cats, but Gertie convinced her family to perform a song from the musical Sweeney Todd. Ollie makes it just in time, making Gertie very happy, their performance eventually goes well with the audience, they celebrate in the bar. Maya is happy they are staying in New Jersey, because Ollie has decided not to take to job, she asks why he did so if he loved so much, Ollie says he thought he did, but he loves his new life much more, because being a father is the only thing he was ever really good at. Also starring Mike Starr as Block, Stephen Root as Greenie, Jason Lee as PR Exec #1, Matt Damon as PR Exec #2 and S. Epatha Merkerson as Doctor. Affleck is good at being both funny and serious as the single father, Carlin gets some one-liners at the grandfather, Lopez is good in her brief time, Castro is adorable as the smart daughter, and the cameo by Smith is very welcome. This movie is slushy, and it does have the cringy and sympathetic moments, but it did make me laugh a good amount, the love story is reasonable, and the family stuff doesn't hurt, all together it was a likeable romantic comedy drama. Good!
BrickNash
What the hell were the critics thinking when they gave this film negative reviews at the time?Jersey Girl is a charming, heartfelt and very emotional....I won't even call it a comedy as it really feels more like a drama in a lot of parts.There are loads of incredibly well played scenes which blend 'fish out of water', 'rom-com' and even 'buddy movie' at times. It's well written as you would expect from Smith, but the directing is where the film comes in to its own, and of course it helps when you have talent like the brilliant George Carlin on board and Ben Affleck makes a really good lead as he's shown in Smith's previous films.There are scenes in this film which just boil so effortlessly from calm and cold to scalding hot and trust me, they hit you right in the feels. Raquel Castro as seven year old Gertie is one of the sweetest screen girls you'll ever see and her personalty and wit will make you fall in love with her after only a few scenes.This is a great film to watch with a loved one and a glass or five of wine, or even just on your own if you want a very emotional, sweet and feelgood experience.It's so depressing to know that Smith was really affected by the negative reviews of this film which are TOTALLY undeserved, and just goes to show that you should NEVER listen to critics. EVER!Fantastic film!
Seth Landers
Kevin Smith is a talented filmmaker, so before you get on my case about disliking the guy, let me just inform you all that I'm a huge fan of his work. Clerks is great, Mallrats is amazing, Chasing Amy is okay, Dogma was decent, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back was hilarious, and so on. With that being said, I was shocked by how bad this movie turned out.You have an all-star cast, an amazing director, and so much potential all wasted for nothing! Ben Affleck is a likable guy but not here and the girl who plays the bratty daughter is not only annoying as hell but she is TERRIBLE. Absolutely atrocious! This Raquel Castro girl makes Veruca Salt look tolerable. It's clear that Liv Tyler and Will Smith couldn't refuse the paycheck by signing on to this complete mess of a movie. Jason Biggs, what were you thinking?! American Pie was the highlight of your career and now it seems that your agent picks your scripts to act in at random, regardless of the quality.The plot goes nowhere, the characters are uninteresting, and I found the whole experience to be just boring. We're talking about a once great writer-director and THIS is what we get? You've got to be kidding me. It tries to be sappy and then it attempts to be raunchy and then Kevin Smith doesn't know whether his target audience for this are kids or adults. There was never a time in the process where his producer, Scott Mosier, read the script and told him, "C'mon! You can totally do better than this"? Seriously, this is a movie with the words BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD written all over it. Watch Clerks or Mallrats instead of Jersey Hurl!
