Arts & Entertainment
 

Smith keeps popular funny

by John Seaborn Gray
The Daily Cougar

Kevin Smith's newest movie, Jersey Girl, is a huge risk for him. First of all, it's his first foray into the hit-and-miss world of mainstream cinema. 

Foregoing the raunchy, vulgarity-laden fringe entertainment that made him famous, Smith has crafted a far more vanilla movie. Instead of his previous edginess, the film has a much sweeter tone. It's rated PG-13 and drops only one "f-bomb." This is a Kevin Smith movie your parents would enjoy. 

The second risk involves Ben Affleck. His last three movies (Daredevil, Paycheck, and Gigli) met with reactions from audiences ranging from "disinterested" to "nausea-inducing." Couple this with his high-profile romance with Jennifer Lopez (also in the movie), and you've got a movie star whom the country seems very, very tired of.

While many of you will miss the delirious, cartoony tone of movies such as Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, it doesn't mean you shouldn't give Smith a chance as he attempts to mature into a more well-rounded director. You should also give Affleck a chance, remembering his good performances in Good Will Hunting and Changing Lanes. It's best to enter this movie as prejudice-free as possible. 

The story starts with Affleck's character Ollie Trinke, a highly-paid public relations agent, as he meets Jennifer Lopez's character, Gertrude. After a whirlwind romance, they get married and Gertrude becomes pregnant. Unfortunately, she has an aneurysm while giving birth and dies in the hospital. 

This isn't a spoiler; Lopez is dead and gone within the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Ollie, barely concealing his grief, gets fired from his PR job and moves in with his father Bart (George Carlin). After a short adjustment period while Ollie gets his priorities straight, the movie flashes forward six years. Ollie now works for the city with Bart, and his little girl, Gertie (an eerily J-Lo-like Raquel Castro), is in grade school. This is where the main story line picks up. 

All of the performances deserve accolades. Affleck comes off as genuine and likable; for once his cocky smugness works for him instead of against him as he plays a guy who generally hides how he feels from the rest of the world behind a cheerful veneer. Carlin is hilarious as Bart, and effective in the scenes which actually require the stand-up comedian to act. Liv Tyler plays one of her most lovable characters of all time with the energetic, spirited Maya, and little Castro plays convincingly as the love of Ollie's life. 

Credit must be given to Smith for directing a movie with this adorable little girl without ever once going overboard on the sort of schmaltzy fluff that other movies featuring children love to indulge in. 

Indeed, Smith's twisted, irreverent sense of humor has survived surprisingly intact in this lighter fare; when Gertie has to pick a song from a musical to perform in front of her school, she picks "God, That's Good" from the bloodiest Broadway musical out there, Sweeney Todd. The performance is classic. 

Although it gets disappointingly formulaic toward the end (Ollie has a big job interview, and wouldn't you know it, it's within an hour of his big duet with his daughter! Can he pull them both off? Can you name how many movies you've seen this device in before?), the rest of the movie manages to skirt cliche and provides an endearing, genuine love story about a man and the most important person in his life. 

Jersey Girl

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler

Miramax Films

The verdict: A departure for Smith, but Jersey Girl deserves a chance.
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