REVIEW - Jersey Girl

Written & Directed by Kevin Smith
Rated PG-13 - 102 minutes
Released March 26, 2004

I know I'm reaching well into the past for this one but it's a monkey I have to get off my back. I am a huge Kevin Smith fan. Every movie of his I have seen has been brilliant not to mention an instant addition to my pantheon of must-see films. Until tonight, I had seen all of his films except for Jersey Girl. I'll admit I avoided it because I was afraid I would not like it. Then where would I be?

After its brief theatrical run, it showed up on DVD and that caused even more concerns. In this case it was that the blurb exclamation point (BPE) to movie ratio was unacceptable. This is how it works: you pick up a DVD case (except in special cases) you have one movie in your hand. Turn it over and read the blurb. The more exclamation points contained in that blurb the more times you can imagine some cigar chomping suit telling his marketing department they need to "jazz it up" or "kick it up a notch." A good movie doesn't need anything Jazzy. The best BPE to movie ratio would be 0:1 (zero exclamation points to one movie). A 1:1 ratio is still acceptable. 2:1 is pushing it. 3:1 is Uwe Boll territory. Jersey Girl has a 2:1, so I avoided it for years.

But I digress...

Now that I've seen it, I'll tell you there is one Kevin Smith movie that won't be added to the pantheon, but still managed to be a decent film. To say Jersey Girl was a departure from Smith's earlier work would be an understatement. A departure of this magnitude took balls. Big, steely balls. And for that I applaud you (even if I did miss my chance to see you at comicon because you were stuck in traffic forcing me to spend the next 3 months crying myself to sleep). There are plenty of directors who will never make a film this good, even if their offerings bring more bank at the box office (I'm looking at you Mr. Bay).

My only beef with the film is that there were a few moments where the dialogue was substituted for a conversational montage. We see people talking, we see them reacting, we see a few cross-fades, but all we hear is music. These particular moments were important enough to me that not hearing the actual dialogue (as opposed to the hollow substitute) left me distanced from the a the film as a whole. Especially considering it was an opportunity to see these moments (even if they've been done before) as Kevin Smith would have done them. I especially felt robbed in a scene where Affleck's character was supposedly doing what he does best in front of an angry crowd feeling severely inconvenienced by something they really needed. The only other time we see Affleck being a publicist in the length of the film is a brief debacle that leads to him losing his job, it would have been a real triumph for this character to have had that opportunity to shine. Watching it transpire as it did, I couldn't believe Smith would do this to me...

I have been aware for some time that there is indeed an extended cut of this film.. As far as I knew it had only been shown at Vulgarthon events. With this limited knowledge I did a little digging on the Internet and from what I understand that cut does include Affleck's entire speech. But who knows if you can believe everything you read on the Internet, right? With the possibility of a Director's Cut DVD, I suppose I should wait until I see it to put my final judgement of this film to rest. But knowing that there is a version of the film that contains the entirety of the speech in question (perhaps to my relief), the thing I liked least about this film probably had more to do with studio interference than a filmmaker I worship, which means I have one less tirade to document here. But it does beg the question: who would give Kevin Smith a pile of money to make a movie and then insist on cuts when it gets too talky?

Again, I digress...

Seeing this film so far removed from the Gigli debacle and Bennifer train wreck, I have to admit that Jersey Girl did manage to be funny and charming, and even surprisingly touching. Not a perfect film, but far from the piece of utter crap I was afraid it might be. And shame on anyone who didn't give it a chance. Shame on me.

I suppose the lesson here is that you should probably never read a review of this film from a guy who would steal Kevin Smith's hair brush if it happened to have been left in a bathroom of an only mildly locked house. Shame on you.

On that note I'll leave you but not before giving Jersey Girl a rating of "Mostly Decent" on the Mr. Blunderson scale.