Kevin smith continues to grow as a person as he moves further into his thirties. His life is often reflected in his works and the tale of parenthood in Jersey Girl is no different. Jersey Girl takes place beginning in New York with Ollie Trinke a successful music publicist. Jennifer Lopez stars opposite as Gertrude Steiney, a book publisher who tames Ollie and eventually marries him.
So as with most married couples they decided to have a baby. During the delivery, unfortunately, Gertrude suffers an anuerysm and passes away. On the flip side, Ollie is proud father to a healthy baby girl, who he subsequently names Gertie, after her mom.
Trying to juggle being a Dad with a career, Ollie enlists the help of his father Bart, played by George Carlin. Of course good old gramps gets tired after a month of leaving work and decides that Ollie is going to have to help out more. The year is 1996 and Ollie has to be at a house dedication by the Fresh Prince, who is aiming to launch his movie career. So with the baby in tow and crying, Ollie heads off to tame the crowd of journalists covering the event. Of course lil gertie doesn't cooperate and Ollie has to take hold of her right during his speech. With the crowd chanting FRESH PRINCE over and over while waiting for the tardy Smith, Ollie unleashes a blaze of rhetoric against the journies which ultimately causes him to lose his job, and be pretty much blacklisted from the PR world.
So the pair moves back to New Jersey to be with Pops. We flash forward seven years and Ollie is now a street sweeper city worker just like pops and lil Gertie is now Seven and attending school. The story picks up with Ollie meeting Maya (Liv Tyler) at a video store where she notices he rents porn. The two quickly become close friends after she learns that his wife died and he hasn't had sex with anyone on seven years. The combination of Ollie, Maya and of course Gertie propel the story forward with a warm felt ending that shows that home really is where the heart is.
As a huge Kevin Smith fan I was a little disappointed with the lack of Kevin's usual sharp tongue and witty banter. Jennier Lopez and Ben Affleck are simply terrible together onscreen. I've never seen Gigli but now I believe the people were right about these two. Still the movie is a warm change for Smith and worth a viewing by everyone.
The Disc:
Miramax presents this DVD in a very respectable 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. The transfer is on par with any other recent Miramax title giving Smith's work a nice look. Audio for this actionless talker is presented in DD 5.1 and really isn't much of a showcase as to be expected.
Extras on the disc begin with Two feature-length commentaries. First up is the ever opinionated Smith along with pal Affleck. These two cutups provide for some hikinks that are definitely worth listening to. If the funniness of hearing these guys talk isn't enough, then you can listen to the second sountrack featuring Smith, Mewes and Mossier who once again cutup, only in an even more hillarious way.
Next up are clips from Kevin's Roadside attractions that he put together for the Tonight Show. As with the Clerks X disc these are funny but hardly fresh compared to seeing them on the Tonight Show.
If just talking wasn't enough then fans will love seeing Ben Affleck and Kevin Smith interviewed on film. More structured than the audio comments, this goes into their relationship and the antics behind the scenes. I only ask "Where's George Carlin?"
Finally there are some strange but interesting Text Interviews with Cast & Crew. Here we get Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Raquel Castro, Matt Damon, producer Scott Mosier, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, production designer Robert Holtzman, and costume designer Juliet Polcsa giving their own little snippets. There's also the standard trailers.
bottom line:
Jersey Girl starts off slow and is missing some of Kevin's earlier pizazz. However it makes good strides and ultimately ends up being a worthy complement to his other works. George Carlin alone makes this worth viewing even if it is missing silent bob and jay.
3 out of 5
By - Brian Gray
