Jersey Girl (2004)

Jersey Girl is a 2004 American comedy-drama film written, co-edited and directed by Kevin Smith.

It stars Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Raquel Castro, George Carlin, Jason Biggs, Jennifer Lopez and Will Smith.

At $35 million, it was Kevin Smith's biggest-budget project, but it went on to become a box office bomb.

Plot
Oliver "Ollie" Trinké (Ben Affleck) is a powerful media publicist in New York City whose wife, Gertrude (Jennifer Lopez) dies during childbirth in 1994.

To avoid his grief, he buries himself in his work and ignores his new daughter, Gertie while his father, Bart (George Carlin) takes a month off from work to care for her, but returns so that his son is forced to live up to his responsibility as a parent.

Under the stress of a botched diaper change and a baby who will not stop crying, Ollie trashes his client Will Smith for his soon-to-be released film Independence Day in front of assembled reporters.

The outburst costs Ollie his job, so he moves in with his father in New Jersey. He eventually apologizes for ignoring his daughter and attributes his public outburst to his grief. Blacklisted by all of New York City's public relations firms, he has to work as a civil servant in the borough where he now lives with his father.

Seven years later, in 2001, Gertie (Raquel Castro), now in elementary school, often coaxes him to rent films to watch. At the video store, they meet Maya (Liv Tyler), a graduate student and one of the store's clerks, whose uninhibited probing into Ollie's love life almost leads to their having casual sex. She soon becomes a part of their lives.

As part of his job in the borough, Ollie speaks to a group of outraged citizens to win over their approval for a major public works project that will temporarily close a street in the neighborhood.

His successful and enjoyable interaction with the crowd leads him to realize how much he misses the public relations work. He contacts Arthur (Jason Biggs), his one-time protégé, who sets up a promising interview.

The prospect of moving to New York creates tension among Ollie, Gertie, Bart and Maya, especially when he says that his interview is on the same day as Gertie's school talent show. She yells at him, saying she hates him and that she wishes he had died instead of her mom.

Ollie claims he hates her right back, saying she and Gertrude took his life away and he just wants it back. He immediately regrets it and tries to apologize, but the damage is done and Gertie pushes him away and runs to her room, crying. A few days later, he and Gertie finally patch things up and she accepts the fact that they will be moving to New York.

While waiting to be interviewed, he has a chance encounter with Will Smith (playing himself), the man that he trashed at his public outburst years before. Smith has no idea who Ollie is, but the two spark a conversation about work and children. Ollie is able to make it to Gertie's "Sweeney Todd" performance at the last moment.

The film ends with him, Gertie, Bart, Maya and the rest celebrating at the bar. and Maya hint at possible feelings for each other before being interrupted by Gertie.

Ollie holds her and says that they are staying in New Jersey because he did not take the job. She asks why he did so if he loved it so much. He says that he thought he did, but he loved his new life more because being a father to her was the only thing that he was ever really good at.

Cast

 * Ben Affleck as Oliver "Ollie" Trinké
 * Liv Tyler as Maya
 * Raquel Castro as Gertie Trinké
 * George Carlin as Bart Trinké
 * Jennifer Lopez as Gertrude Steiney
 * Stephen Root as Greenie
 * Mike Starr as Block
 * Jason Biggs as Arthur Brickman
 * Will Smith as Himself (uncredited)
 * Jason Lee as PR Exec. 1
 * Matt Damon as PR Exec. 2
 * S. Epatha Merkerson as Doctor
 * Paulie Litowsky as Bryan
 * Harley Quinn Smith as Trace Colelli
 * Matthew Maher as Delivery Guy

Production
The film's budget included $10 million for Affleck and $4 million for Lopez.

In the original draft of the script, Bruce Willis (rather than Will Smith) was the cause of (and eventual resolution to) Ollie's problems. Smith wrote the first fifty pages of the script with Bill Murray and Joey Lauren Adams in mind.

The film was primarily shot in Highlands, New Jersey.

Academy Award-winning Vilmos Zsigmond, the film's director of photography, was said by Smith to have been "an ornery old cuss who made the crew miserable."

Paulsboro, New Jersey served as one of the shooting locations of the film; scenes were shot there at its municipal building, Clam Digger Bar and high school.

Cut from the film were scenes at Paulsboro's St. John's Church and Little League Field. The scene in the church was to show the marriage between the Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck characters; it was cut from the film shortly after their split and scenes reshot, reducing her part to a cameo due to concern over the poor box office reception of Gigli.

The film is the first major theatrical release to include a 9/11 joke: when Gertie asks to see Cats, Ollie refuses on the grounds that the long-running musical is "the second-worst thing to happen to New York City."

On the second episode of the podcast "Blow Hard with Malcolm Ingram", Smith tells a story of Malcolm sending him lyrics to "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac trying to apologize for an earlier incident. He was so touched by the email that he included the song in the film's soundtrack.

Release
The film is Kevin Smith's first to have received a PG-13 rating.

According to interviews with Smith in the documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated", it was originally given an "R" rating due to the dialogue with Ollie and Maya discussing masturbation in the diner, but that decision was overturned.

An extended cut was shown at Kevin Smith's private film festival Vulgarthon in 2005 and 2006. The extended version included much more of the Jennifer Lopez section of the film, Ben Affleck's full speech in the city hall, a longer ending and some music changes.

On the film's audio commentary, Smith stated that a longer version of the film would be released within the next year.

At a Q&A session in Vancouver in early 2009, Smith said that a release of the extended cut on DVD and Blu-ray Disc is "very possible."

Box Office
"Jersey Girl" made $25.2 million at the North American domestic box office and $10.8 million internationally against a $35 million budget and a $15 million marketing campaign.

Critical Reception
Critical response was mixed with critics denoting it as being formulaic, though some critics (including Roger Ebert) commended Kevin Smith for trying different things in his film career.

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 41% approval rating with an average rating of 5.3/10 based on 171 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Full of cloyingly sentimental cliches."

Smith was quoted saying his film was "not for critics."

Kevin Smith's reaction to "Jersey Girl" after its failure was dour. He references the film during his cameo appearance in "Degrassi: The Next Generation."

He jokingly tells Paige Michalchuk (whom he cut out of his fictional film "Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!") that he cut Jennifer Lopez out of most of "Jersey Girl" and wanted to cut Ben Affleck out too "but then it just would have been that little kid."

In an interview from the Clerks II DVD, Smith noted, "All these people were just trashing this movie's stars instead of looking at the movie itself. I get that a lot of people didn't like it but dude, I spent two years of my life on that movie."

Accolades
Razzie Awards
 * Jennifer Lopez: Worst Supporting Actress (nominated)
 * Ben Affleck: Worst Actor (nominated)

Young Artist Awards
 * Raquel Castro: Best Performance in a Feature Film- Young Actress Age Ten or Younger (won)
 * Best Family Feature Film- Comedy or Musical (nominated)