Jersey Girl (2004) Reviews

• Surprisingly good!

  Smells_Like_Cheese2008-05-24

  I remember back in the day when Jersey Girl came out and it was right around the time the "Bennifer" days were coming to an end and we just suffered the mass bomb that was "Gigli". Many were calling this movie "Gigli 2", I just couldn't believe they would put Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck together in a film again after all the innocent bystanders had to put up with, but they did. But I don't know why, maybe because it's already 4 years later after all that craziness, I decided to go ahead and rent Jersey Girl and just see what it was about. I watched it last night and I couldn't believe my eyes, I actually liked this movie. It wasn't your typical romantic comedy, it was something different and really enjoyable. Kevin Smith, who is more famous for Clerks, made a funny and genuinely good film that anyone can enjoy. Gertie Trinke is a little girl who is telling her story about her family and how they came to be. Her father, Ollie, was once a successful man in New York who was the publicity for famous musicians. But when his wife Gertrude dies in childbirth with their daughter, Ollie has to learn to grow up, but he looses his job after calling Will Smith a no body who won't get another movie. So Ollie and his dad raise Gertie, who teaches Ollie that there's more to life than just the riches. Jersey Girl is a good film, I don't know why anyone would say that this is a bad film, I understand people not liking it, but the story was very decent and the acting was I'd say above average. One of the things I loved was that the story was very human, the little girl who played Gertie, Raquel Castro, was perfect for the role and didn't over do anything or made her character annoying. Ben Affleck, who I normally cannot watch in a movie was very good in Jersey Girl, his little talk with his infant girl about loosing his wife was touching. Maybe because I'm a girl or something, maybe that's why I loved the film, but I just thought it was good and I do recommend it. 7/10

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• Very Sweet Movie

  claudio_carvalho2005-09-26

  In New York, the young executive Oliver "Ollie" Trinke (Ben Affleck) is a successful PR of the music industry. He meets and falls in love for Gertrude Steiney (Jennifer Lopez), who soon gets pregnant. However, she dies in the childbirth and Ollie decides to return to his father's home in New Jersey. Pressed by the situation of lonely father, the workaholic Ollie blows-up in an important press conference and makes a fatal statement, losing his job and becoming blacklisted in his publicist career. He promises to be the "best father in the world" to the young Gertie, and stays single, grieving his beloved wife, without dating any woman for seven years and trying to retrieve a position of public relation. One day, he meets the rental clerk Maya (Liv Tyler), they become friends and she helps him to supersede his past life. "Jersey Girl" is a very sweet movie about family, and honestly I could never expect such sensitive story from Kevin Smith. I like his work a lot, and I have all his movies in my collection. "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy" are amazing, and I must confess that I was tired of "Jay and Silent Bob". The shift in his career could not be better. The story is great and very well balanced with drama, comedy and romance. Liv Tyler is fantastic, showing a great chemistry with Ben Affleck. George Carlin is great, without being corny, in the role of Bart Trinke. But the girl Raquel Castro is stunning: very bright and smart, she steals all the scenes and seems to be a future star. I really loved this movie. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Menina dos Olhos" ("Apple of the Eyes" – meaning something very dear")

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• I left this on the shelf far too long

  damien-laughton2004-10-27

  So after reading many a disconsolate review from Kevin Smith fans I decided to purchase the DVD anyway. Yet all the negative comments had left their toll on me and the DVD stayed on the shelf in its shrink wrapper for FAR TOO LONG. You motor heads! Yes this movie is sweet and yes it's sometimes even sickly but it's endearing and moving. Ben Athleck switches in and out of competence a few too many times to make his performance IMO a completely solid one but frankly he does a good job of holding all the disparate threads of the movie together. If you want to live in 1994 dick & fart jokes then simply put Clerks in the DVD player and play it again! However each of Kevin's films go someway in their own right into the exploration of inter-personal relationships and the impact of consequence in our daily lives. Jersey Girl is no different in this respect than Clerks.

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• Most Heartfelt from Kevin Smith

  anthonycristo2004-11-13

  This is without any doubt my favorite Kevin Smith film. Unlike his other brilliant comedies this is a story that is truly written from the heart. It has a lot of warmth and pain mixed in with a complex story of a man coming to terms with his fatherhood. The fact that he dedicated the film to his late father shows this to be a film maker working through the loss of an important figure in his life. George Carlin gives a stand out performance as Ben Affleck's father and Ben Affleck gives a stellar performance of a man that comes to terms with the life he has instead of the life he (thinks) he wants. This film still has the same witty humor like any good Kevin Smith film does but it is undercut by the seriousness of the relationship between a child and their parent. Whether it is Ben's relationship with his father or his relationship as a father to his adorable daughter. The only criticism I had was that Ben could not bring himself to cry at a key moment in the film. Other than that, his and everyone else's performances were outstanding. Kevin Smith deserves much credit for revealing so much about himself in this film.

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• This Jersey Girl Is a Great Date

  pianoplayinpaulie2004-03-17

  OK, how obvious is my title? :) Kevin Smith is a writer I admire tremendously. He has an uncanny ability to capture the way people speak in reality; not just in movie screenplay structure. *Jersey Girl* is a real step forward for Kevin Smith. He returns to screens with a mature and funny film about a man learning to be a father. The style here is more aligned with Smith's terrific *Chasing Amy* than *Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.* Ben Affleck is Ollie, a hot shot New York publicist with everything going for him. As the movie opens, he and his girlfriend Gertie (Jennifer Lopez) meet, get engaged and married and expect their first child together. Then the unexpected happens: Gertie dies in childbirth and Ollie is left with his infant daughter. Mired in his own grief, he essentially ignores his child for the first month, leaving the baby care-taking to his Pop (played by George Carlin). A crisis moment comes where he's forced to handle both his career and his child at the same time, and it doesn't go well. Flash forward six years and Ollie seems to have adjusted to a different life in a small New Jersey town. He absolutely adores his daughter, who is named for her mother. A young woman who works at a video store (Liv Tyler) enters their lives in an unusual way and the movie becomes an exploration of the push/pull between what someone wants for themselves and what they should do to meet the needs of others. Two things could have happened with a movie like this. One is that it would be about how Affleck's character falls in love with the quirky video store girl and Gertie has to cope with the new woman in daddy's life. Two, the movie would be filled with cutesy "kid" moments that are meant for nothing more than easy smiles. Neither of those things happen. Of course the little girl is cute, but there is substance behind it. The way Ollie and Gertie communicate with each other is very realistic and in many moments, fraught with tension that works. As far as the stuff with Tyler's character, the script doesn't persue a standard 'romantic comedy' courtship between the two. Instead, everything is repressed and tentative. Affleck's and Tyler's characters basically duck around their feelings for the whole thing. Both of these directions were completely refreshing and as a result, the movie didn't feel so "standard." I was happy to walk out of *Jersey Girl* feeling like the stuff that the press shoved down our throats regarding Ben Affleck is gone. This movie wipes that away, even though Lopez is in the movie for the first ten minutes. Ben Affleck's career will definitely survive the overexposure he's had, and this movie is the first step in ensuring that. It reinforces that he is a good actor, not just the latest dude to be dating the industry's latest hot chick. George Carlin reigns in the schtick and gets to play a really solid character. Sure, he has some quips here and there, but he fills the role of loving "pop" quite well. Also of wonderful surprise is Liv Tyler, who is light and bouncy as Affleck's love interest. I found her performance really intriguing, especially since she is able to speak the lines of the character through her mouth, but have her eyes communicate something totally different at the same time. Smith makes excellent use of music in this film. One scene in particular where Stevie Nicks' heartbreaking "Landslide" plays nearly had me in tears. And who would have thought anyone would be able to use a rather dark Sondheim musical to such greatly comic, and not too over the top, advantage. There is also a scene in the film that contains one of the most natural exchanges of dialogue I've seen in a film. In a conversation between two fathers, Smith manages to make it seem as though two actors are speaking as themselves. It's a fantastic scene. *Jersey Girl* is another reminder of how much I appreciate Kevin Smith. If you're looking for a sweet and charming time at the movies this spring, so far, *Jersey Girl* is a great bet. Paul Katz

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