To see Kevin Smith resort to the many cornball contrivances spread throughout ‘Jersey Girl’ — this lightweight love letter to his clan — will no doubt throw his faithful fans for a loop. But others who come in for some heart-warmin’ without a predilection for the distinctly off-color, caustic tone Smith has employed to varying degrees of effectiveness in all of his earlier films should find a modicum of pleasure in the family-friendly fluff. The former will cringe during sitcom-ish scenes such as the one in which Ben Affleck gets caught canoodling with Liv Tyler in the shower by his precocious daughter, then endures a lecture from the little girl about the do’s and don’ts of dating. The softies, on the other hand, will be reaching for the Kleenex when Affleck’s Ollie Trinke — in the wake of his wife’s death during childbirth — promises his infant that he’ll be “the best daddy in the world because that’s what your mommy wanted, and that’s all I am now.”
Pre-fatherhood, Ollie Trinke was a hotshot New York music publicist whose career obligations often intruded on his relationship with wife Gertrude (Jennifer Lopez in a deliberately brief appearance … Smith apparently saw “Gigli” before editing his film). After Gertrude’s death, Ollie finds it nearly impossible to juggle the demands of work with those of single parenthood, and ultimately winds up suffering an on-the-job meltdown that gets him fired and blacklisted. So it’s goodbye Manhattan, hello Highlands, New Jersey. Fast forward seven years: The best job Ollie could get is on a road maintenance crew with his crotchety but lovable old man, Bart (George Carlin), whose house he and lil’Gertie (Raquel Castro, a pint-sized J-Lo lookalike) are sharing. Though Highlands is just across the river from the Big Apple, for Ollie it seems light years from the jet-setting lifestyle he longs to live again. Not that he doesn’t love being with Gertie. Who wouldn’t? She’s one of those impossibly cute, incredibly smart kids that are only found in movies. It’s just that, well, it’s a bit too early in the film for him to have figured out that he’s already got all the things that really matter. Well, almost everything — so enter Maya (Tyler, who shines) a provocative video store clerk/grad student who rouses Ollie’s long-dormant libido. From there, it’s just a matter of time spent neck-deep in gooeyness before Ollie has to choose between — and no, I’m not kidding — going on a big job interview at a hot PR agency or attending Gertie’s school play. Sniff. Some-body please pass the tissue … and a copy of “Clerks.” (Rated PG-13 for language and sexual content including frank dialogue. Running time: 103 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 26, 2004. Read the original PDF.