Kevin Smith's Jersey Girl

[ono]

Hilarious.

[Banky]

all courtesy of newsaskew.com

A statment from Kevin Smith

A director's statement is something that's sometimes sent out to film critics and the like when a new film's coming out to explain a bit about themselves and their film. Here's what's making the rounds from Kevin to those about to check out "Jersey Girl". We thought you folks might be interested in seeing what one of these looks like (the usual opening spoiler is ahead, gosh we can't wait 'til we don't hafta say that anymore):

After nearly ten years of telling stories about surly register jockeys, youthful mall denizens, flip-flopping lesbians and the sexually insecure men who love them, fallen angels and other contemporaries of "The Christ" (as we've come to know Him, courtesy of Mad Max Riggs), and amiable stoners who run afoul of the internet, I felt like it was time to really let my hair down. Hence Jersey Girl.
I've never fallen for a gay woman, I've never faced down a rubber Poop Monster, and while I have worked in convenience stores, if I ever dreamed of lipping off to the customers, I would have spent an inordinate amount of time at the mall, as an ex-convenience store employee. But while fiction is always far more entertaining than real life, you need a seed of truth to kick off any good story. For Jersey Girl, it was the reverse: I needed a small point of fiction to tell a much more personal story. Which is why, to this day, my wife still won't believe I wrote the film as a valentine for her - because I kill her proxy off in the first fifteen minutes. Regardless, she is my muse on the flick.

I was working on the ill-fated, ABC-shit-canned Clerks cartoon back in 2000. Needless to say, while it was a gas to write as I exercised my funny bone, that most important of muscles - the heart - was feeling flabby. Granted, it could've been all the Twinkies I was putting away at that pre-Atkins stage of my life; but I like to think I was just eager to write something a little more emotional. So one night, when I got home from a long day of gag-writing, I watched my wife put our then-two-month-old to bed. The pair of them were incredible: Jen, who so naturally took to motherhood, and Harley, who was so pure and perfect. And what was I? The guy who came home at the end of the day. A tourist. I always thought it was a miracle that I had a career in film at all. But the real miracle was playing out in front of my eyes. And from that moment forward, I decided my professional life would have to take a backseat, while I became more present in my personal life.

As my wife turned out the lights in the baby's room, I was struck by this grim thought: that choice wouldn't be mine to make if Harley had made it through delivery but Jen hadn't. How would I deal with the loss of one love of my life while raising the other alone? That night, after Jen went to sleep, I sat down and wrote for two hours. The result was the first fifty pages of what would two years later become the movie you're about to see.

This isn't my funniest or most original film to date. It's not the most controversial or clever either (indeed, some would have me believe I've never made any film that can be described by any of those terms). But it is my most personal. It's not only spun from a six year love affair with my wife and child, but also the thirty three year long love affair I was lucky to share with my own, recently-deceased Dad. It's a movie about fathers, made by one dad who's still learning the ropes as a tribute to his Dad, who made fatherhood an art form. It's about how the only way I could ever fully appreciate what a great Father I had was by becoming one myself.

But most of all, it's about... 103 minutes long.

And if THAT doesn't have you sold on seeing the film, dear fans, well, we dunno what will. See ya'll in the theaters in a few weeks.


Very Positive JG Review @ AICN!



The very widely-read Aint It Cool News website logged a very positve article/review of Jersey Girl today, which is always a good sign as they're a bunch of tough critics over there. Harry's always been a big View Askew fan, and it's great to see that audiences are writing into the site with praise for the film. Here's that review, though we will warn you there are minor spoilers ahead:


I caught a screening of "Jersey Girl" earlier tonight in Baltimore. I had a lot of reservations going in, based on the less positive reviews on your site and its lackluster to say the least trailer, but I really really loved it. While I will need to rewatch 'Chasing Amy' and 'Dogma' before I call this his best film, it is by far the most developed and believable characters Smith has ever written.
As I'm sure you all know, the plot consists of Affleck, as Ollie Trinke, attempting to raise his daughter (the amazingly charismatic Raquel Castro) with some help from his father (George Carlin in a pretty endearing performance), after his wife (J.Lo) dies during childbirth in the first 15 minutes. While certain moments fall flat, what really makes the movie work is the relationship between Affleck and Castro. This is actually a believable father-daughter relationship, not simply the kind we usually see in movies. Not only are we shown the unique bond that these two have, but also included is a scene where the two yell incredibly hurtful things at one another, that anyone who has ever had a bitter fight with a parent will recognize. Surprising, even shocking for a Smith film, there were a few moments where myself and several audience members were moved to tears, most notably one of Carlin's last lines in the movie. All of this leads up to a closing scene that one can only describe as beautiful.

Still, I don't want to undersell all the funny stuff in this movie, as it is for the most part, a comedy. Well, obviously it is a more family-friendly kind of funny, but it's still a relatively strong PG-13, with much conversations involving sex and masturbation.

There is a pretty funny subplot involving Ollie's criticisms of Will Smith that lost him his job, that leads up to a scene that could have been a disaster, but ends up being the best written scene in the movie.

Now, I must say, I hate J. Lo as much as the next guy, but the talk about her opening scenes with Affleck being awful is pure, unadulterated bullshit. This is actually one of the only two movies she didn't piss me off in (the other being the underrated and forgotten 'U-Turn'). Her scenes with Affleck come off as genuine and sort of charming in a way.

Liv Tyler plays a video-store clerk who Affleck starts to fall for, and it is hard to remember a more adorable character than Liv plays in this movie. For an actress whose soft-spoken line readings always annoyed me, here she gives a really sweet performance and is downright lovable as the kind of girl we all dream about.

I honestly don't know why this was pushed till March, while the often painful-to-watch "Cold Mountain" got the big Miramax oscar push. While this wouldn't have really had much of a shot for a Best Picture nom, Raquel Castro would've been a leading contender for Best Supporting Actress, and possibly even Affleck for Best Actor, in what is definitely the best performance of his career (not saying much for Mr. Reindeer Games I know, but still).

I know many will say this is Smith selling out, but in my opinion, this is really just him maturing as a filmmaker, similiar to how I felt "Big Fish" was for Tim Burton.

While it's not a perfect movie, it's a bonafide crowd please that doesn't pander to its audience, is consistently entertaining, and one of the better portrayals of a father-daughter relationship to ever hit the screen.AICN



You gotta love that kind of a review.  Man this anticipation is starting to affect me.

[Banky]

im keepin the JG press streamin

heres an interview with star Liv Tyler about her role in the film



Liv It Up
An Interview with Liv Tyler
By Antony Teofilo

Antony Teofilo: This is your first foray into a ViewAskew film. How do you feel about working with Kevin Smith?

Liv Tyler: It's been so much fun, particularly for me, because all I've really worked on for the last three years was THE LORD OF THE RINGS. This is the first thing I've done post [LOTR], and JERSEY GIRL is such a different experience for me. When I was making [LOTR], I used to joke around because everything is so heavy, and the language is so intense, I'd always say, 'I just want to be in a diner!' On my first day of JERSEY GIRL, I did a scene in a diner. That was my wish, and it came true! [Laughs]



AT: How do you feel about JERSEY GIRL as a project thus far?

LT: I'm very excited, and was very flattered that Kevin wanted me to be a part of it. I've been enjoying working with Kevin, particularly because he's such a great writer. You keep discovering things, and it continues to be fresh and interesting as you perform. He's very natural, and he writes things in a way people actually speak, so it's great to be able to speak those words.

AT: Can you tell me a little bit about the rehearsal process? I've heard Kevin's a stickler when it comes to rehearsal...

LT: [Smiles] I had to skip out of the rehearsal process. I was in London doing post-production work on LOTR. I just had to come and work right away on my first day.

AT: You're crossing from THE LORD OF THE RINGS, which has a huge fan base that borders sometimes on near-religious fanaticism...

LT: Not unlike Kevin's world...[Laughs]

AT: That's sort of what I was getting at. What's it like to be at the center of that kind of a loyal, or some would say rabid, community of fans? Is it intimidating? Do you ever regret being part of something that's such a juggernaut, like LOTR?

LT: There was lots of weird stuff on the internet before the movie came out. I went and looked at one of the websites, and I was so bummed out because they were saying things that were really mean about me.

AT: Like what?

LT: Well, they weren't anything to do with the movie, they were like personal attacks, like I was the spoiled daughter of a rock star, that I was too Hollywood to play Arwen. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I'm far from a spoiled daughter of a rock star...I didn't actually know who my dad was until I was an older kid. I didn't have a very easy upbringing...but then when the movie came out the criticism sort of died down. Then I realized that the fans are quite picky about everything...there wasn't really a time where they picked on me any more than anyone else.



AT: How did you get past dealing with that sort of intense critical appraisal of your performances?

LT: I just stopped looking, really. I [realized] that I don't care about those opinions as much as the opinions that come from my friends and my family. Those opinions means something to me. On the other hand, it's also been really exciting that so many people are interested in it and want to see it, that's for sure.

AT: Getting back the present, the character you play in JERSEY GIRL has some pretty intense emotional scenes...

LT: It's actually a really simple little scene where Maya's very sad and frustrated because she's tried to lie herself through a situation, and it's pretty heartbreaking.

AT: Many performers have spoken about the challenge of crying on camera...where do you go internally when you've got to do something like that?

LT: Um, I don't really like talking about acting.

AT: Why?

LT: It's so personal. And I personally just hate reading about someone who goes on and on about, 'Well, my process is this and that...' I just want to say 'Shut up you pretentious jerk!' [Laughs]

AT: Well, we won't think you're pretentious if you want to share.

LT: For me, I just put myself into the mind of the person I'm portraying. If it's really well-written, and you're speaking the words, [the script] should move you to that place anyway. If you're really in the moment it can happen naturally. The moments that are more difficult are the ones where there's no dialogue and you've got to get yourself into that place. Or, just use a tear stick. [Laughs]

AT: What's a tear stick?

LT: It's basically menthol that you can jab in your eye or blow in your eye. What's good about it is that for those moments where you don't want to beat yourself up, it just kind of makes your eyes water a little. It starts the feeling, but you have to make it happen, too.

AT: I heard you mention the other day that you like performing on camera, but you don't like being in front of a live audience.


LT: I have terrible stage fright.

AT: Really? What happens when you get stage fright?

LT: If I do an awards show, I have to take a beta-blocker. My heart pounds so fast and then I start to breathe weird and then I can't speak, and I start to pass out. I once almost passed out at a press conference in Cannes with Ben and Bruce Willis and everybody for ARMAGEDDON. It's weird because I'm not a shy person, but as soon as I get in front of big groups of people I get really panicked...I think people just expect that you're comfortable everything, but just because you're famous doesn't mean that things aren't scary.

AT: Do you think the public has a lot of misperceptions about celebrities personal lives?

LT: Yes. That's sort of due to the tabloids and how intrusive they are. It can get downright scary. It think my driver sort of likes it when tabloid photographers chase us, because he gets to do all these stunt driving tricks, and drive the wrong way down sixth avenue. [Laughs].



AT: You've mentioned media scrutiny, mean spirited fans and stage fright as some of the downsides to what you do. What do you like about your profession?

LT: My favorite part is the terror, particularly on my first day [on set], just that feeling of not knowing what's going to happen. You can come very prepared, but when you get there, you don't know what the director really has in mind. You feel like you're going to let everyone down, and then somehow you manage to pull through and actually function. To me, that's always a really rewarding feeling.

And having moments with actors is really good. I really like working with Ben [Affleck] a lot. I really enjoyed working with him in ARMAGEDDON. He really listens, and you can really get lost in the scene with him. A lot of actors don't listen. They're just thinking about what they're going to say next. The greatest part about this job to me is just forgetting where you are and getting lost in the moment.

[MacGuffin]

Ben's 'Jersey' girl is Raquel not Jen
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Smith story: When a film crashes and burns big time as "Gigli" did, the fallout can impact in a big way on its stars, especially if they're re-teamed in a new project. In the case of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, they are but they aren't.

While Affleck stars in Miramax's "Jersey Girl," written and directed by Kevin Smith ("Clerks," "Chasing Amy"), Lopez only has a cameo role as Affleck's wife and dies 15 minutes into the movie. Affleck's real co-star is Raquel Castro, the adorable 9-year-old who plays his daughter and looks so much like Lopez that you'd swear they were mother and daughter.

"Jersey," opening wide Mar. 26, is produced by Scott Mosier (who's partnered with Smith on six films to date) and executive produced by Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein and Jonathan Gordon. Also starring are Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Stephen Root, Mike Starr and Jason Biggs.

Having had an early look at "Jersey" Thursday afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised because like many people I thought it would be something along the lines of "Gigli 2." But that's just not the case. This is a sweet father-daughter story that Smith tells so believably well that even I wound up enjoying it -- and, in all honesty, this isn't the kind of film I generally like. Although Lopez's role in the movie is very abbreviated and she disappears quickly, she does have a few scenes with Affleck where they have exactly the sort of good romantic chemistry that somehow didn't materialize in "Gigli."

Affleck plays Ollie, a former superstar New York publicist whose career died after his wife Gertrude died giving birth to their daughter Gertie. Ollie moves back home to New Jersey with the infant Gertie (Castro) to live with his widowed father (Carlin). The film's adult female lead is actually Tyler, who plays Maya, a video store clerk (what else with Smith writing and directing?) who meets Ollie when he brings Gertie to rent a tape. While Gertie's busy considering videos, Ollie ducks into the adult section to grab something for himself. When he checks out, Maya's interest is aroused and romance takes its course.

Along the way, Ollie tries hard to resurrect the PR career that blew up in his face seven years earlier when he badly mishandled a press conference where then-TV star Will Smith was late in arriving. Desperately trying to get back in action now, Ollie meets with the heads of one PR firm, who Smith has played by Matt Damon and Jason Lee (who's worked with Smith in films like "Chasing Amy," "Dogma" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"). After determining that Ollie is, indeed, the legendary PR guy who told off that jam packed press conference and then had some choice words to say about Smith, they make it instantly clear that there's no way in hell they'd ever hire him.

Smith gives us another great insider moment when Ollie's pitching for a job at a top of the line New York PR firm called "Angellotti" -- presumably after Hollywood Oscar marketing and publicity maestro Tony Angellotti. While he's there, who turns up and somehow winds up also sitting in the waiting room next to Ollie? None other than Will Smith, of course. Ollie, of course, recognizes Smith, who by then is a movie superstar (so why is he cooling his heels in the waiting room other than because the story needs him to do so?). Smith, who has no idea who Ollie is or how their lives once intersected, gives Ollie some random words of advice that finally set him on the right track in his life.

When I spoke recently to Smith about "Jersey" he told me that despite all the media fuss about Ben & Jen that stemmed from "Gigli," he's still happy he cast Lopez in "Jersey." "She's great in the movie," he explained. "Without her, I don't think we would have gotten the same committed, wonderful performance that we got out of Ben. I'd have gotten something great out of him, but I really got what I feel is something magical out of him because he was so in love with Jen while we were shooting the movie. And that comes across in their limited time together on screen. But it really comes across when she prepares to die and she's out of the movie. You feel a sense of lose from this for the rest of the film. I think that's largely because he was really into Jen while we were shooting.

"Also, I was glad to cast Jen because we also cast Raquel Castro, primarily because she looks like Jennifer Lopez. When she first came in the room, I was shocked by how close to Jennifer she looked. She looked like a mini Jennifer. And then, thankfully, her performance was also way up there. But the reason we started looking at her more closely was because she bore a resemblance to Jennifer."

Lopez, Smith added, "was really crucial to this movie. And even though stuff happened with 'Gigli' it doesn't matter to me because without Jen I don't think the movie would be as good as it is on all those fronts. Then, of course, there's always the question of, 'That's great for the making of the movie, but what about the marketing of the movie? How does that affect selling the movie?' Thank God, that's not my job. That's the job of Miramax. But the fact that 'Gigli' did kind of bomb, gives us the opportunity for us to be the come-back picture (for Affleck). I'm always for the underdog story. And it forces the marketing to be a bit more honest. I think if 'Gigli' had been a big hit, you probably would have seen a poster that had Ben and Jen on it. And that's not really the movie because Jennifer dies in the first 15 minutes. Because 'Gigli' died (at the boxoffice) we got marketing that I really believe in that sells the movie honestly. It's a story about a guy and his kid and a story about a guy and his father."

Looking back at how he came to write the film's screenplay, Smith told me, "I was working on the 'Clerks' cartoon (the short lived ABC-TV animated series spin-off from Smith's career launching Sundance and Cannes Film Festival award winning feature) at the time back in 2000. It was fun, but a lot of gag writing and there was not a lot of substance to it. So I was kind of hoping to do something at the same time that might have a little more weight to it so I could exercise the other part of the brain. We were out in California. We were stationed, if you will, out there for a few months with the show. I came home and my wife was putting our six month old to bed. I was really kind of moved by it -- kind of swept up by the feeling of like what if my wife had died and left me with a kid? How on earth would I have possibly done this alone because we worked as such a really good team?

"I figured it's not uncommon for most new fathers to think that way and I just kind of responded to it by starting to write the script. I did 50 pages in two hours. I checked it out and I liked what I had. Then I put it in a drawer and sat on it for a year and a half. There was a moment where I was like, 'Do I want to do this movie next or do I want to do the 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' movie?' I decided to do that instead."

Fate, as often is the case, stepped in to sort things out. "The Fourth of July 2001, before 'Jay and Bob' came out, I was at Affleck's for a barbecue," said Smith, who's collaborated with Affleck on five films, including "Jersey." "He was harassing me about doing what he called 'Chasing Amy.' He was like, 'I want to do something where we rehearse it a lot and we do a lot of dialogue and it's all about the story. And I'm not going to be marketing the movie while we're making the movie. He was just coming off the 'Pearl Harbor' press junket at the time.

"He tends to romanticize that 'Chasing Amy' period, I think, because that was the last moment before he was Ben Affleck Movie Star. He wanted to do something more intimate and something that was more about the performance than the special effects. I said, 'Well, I started writing this thing a year and a half ago. It's 50 pages long. Do you want to check it out?' He said yes. So I dropped it off to him and he read it and immediately called me back and was like, 'This is it! This is what we've gotta do. Finish this. This is the thing that we should do next.' So I finished it and it became 'Jersey Girl.'"

How long did it take to write? "That was July when he read it," he replied. "I wrote a little bit more between that and the release of 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' and (doing) all the press and whatnot. Then September 11 happened and I got real busy with doing benefits and things like that back east. So by the time I wrapped it all up, I moved out to California in January 2002. In the first two weeks I got there I finished the script. All told, it was probably a total of a three week write with all the combination of time."

After that, it turned into a movie quickly. "He was on board. I wanted to do it. I gave it to Miramax. They loved the script. So we started moving forward from there," Smith explained.

Asked about casting "Jersey's" other key roles, Smith said, "I'd written the role of (Ollie's) dad for George Carlin. I didn't know how Miramax was going to take to it. I thought they might want me to cast somebody more well known, but frankly they were just like, 'Yeah, Carlin's great.' I had Liv Tyler in mind while I was writing because I was a big fan of the movie she did 'Inventing the Abbotts.' So we started to bang down her door. We were trying to figure out who would play the older Gertrude and my wife when she read the script said, 'I just watched 'The Wedding Planner' and Jennifer Lopez was really great in it.' And I said, 'Yeah, but Ben just shot as movie called 'Gigli' with her. A couple weeks ago they'd just wrapped. So I was like, 'I don't know if he's going to want to do another movie with her again so soon.'

"And then, ironically enough, he called me a week later and said, 'Hey, I was thinking maybe for Gertrude this actress I just worked with -- Jennifer Lopez -- in 'Gigli." And I was like, 'Really? You'd want to do a movie with her (again) so soon?' And he's like, 'Yeah. I mean it's only a cameo really in your movie, but I talked to her about the movie while we were on the 'Gigli' set and she really dug it.' So we asked Jennifer if she wanted in and she did."

In production, Smith said, "We were based in Philly and shot in Jersey and also shot in Manhattan. It was a pretty stress free, problem free shoot. The City of Philadelphia was wonderful. The people in Philly were great. The crew base was magnificent. And while we were shooting, Ben & Jen mania hadn't even kicked in yet. So those two were together, but we weren't hounded. There was no paparazzi, no press until we got to New York City for the last two days of the shoot. And then suddenly the paparazzi came out in full force and you started to get the impression that people were really fascinated by this relationship for whatever reason. So up until that point, we were relatively non-harassed. But once we got to Manhattan, literally a hundred paparazzi showed up in Central Park while we were shooting a very quick shot of Ben & Jen in a (horse drawn) carriage. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before."

Although "Jersey" doesn't hit theaters until Mar. 26, Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein is clearly so enthusiastic about the film that in February he handed Smith "The Green Hornet" to write and direct. Miramax has high hopes that Smith can turn the classic comic book, whose roots are in a radio serial that began in 1936, into a movie franchise.

"He seemed to like our movie enough to give me 'The Green Hornet,' which is kind of cool," Smith observed. "I can't wait to do it. I'm a huge comic book nut. I did a lot of comic book writing for Marvel and D.C. and I've been a reader forever. So the chance to make a comic book movie is a big opportunity for me and it's one I kind of relish. But it's also a little frightening because it's a bigger movie than I've ever done before. And it also has special effects and you've got to be very visually interesting. So I had a bit of trepidation going into it, but I just realized it's no different than the other movies inasmuch as you surround yourself with people who are excellent at their jobs, a great support team, and everyone has equipped themselves as well as they can and you come up with the final picture.

"My goal for the movie is to just make whoever plays Britt Reid, the secret identity of the Green Hornet, as compelling a character as he is when he's in costume. So often with these comic book movies, it's great when they're in the suit but when they're not in the suit you just don't even care. Or the villain is far more interesting than the hero. I just want to make one where the hero is the most interesting guy in the movie and you care about him when he's out of costume, as well. There's a reason why the movies were called 'Batman' and not 'Joker.' And there's a reason why this one will be called 'Green Hornet' because the Green Hornet better be the most compelling character."

What Smith particularly likes about working with "Green Hornet," he pointed out, is that, "Unlike say 'The Hulk' or 'Spider-Man' or 'Superman' or 'Batman,' it's not like it's a character or property that people know the ins and outs of and know every aspect of the character's history and every story ever told about him. 'The Green Hornet' is kind of known by what he looks like and it's known that he hangs out with Kato, his sidekick and chauffer who does kung fu. And some people know that he's got a car called the Black Beauty. Other than that, that's it. There's not a lot that people know about the character. There's not a lot of history that you've got to make sure you stick biblically close to. There's a lot more wiggle room with 'The Green Hornet' than there is with something like 'Spider-Man.' So that's kind of good for me. It helps that it's a known property, but at the same time it really helps creatively that you can kind of go in a bunch of different directions with it so long as you (handle) the key aspects of the character correctly."

When we spoke Smith was about 50 pages into writing "Green Hornet." Asked when he thought he'd have a draft done, he said, "Once I get off the 'Jersey Girl' press tour, I'm going to devote myself to it entirely. We're hoping to be shooting by the end of the summer or the (early) fall. Somewhere in there."

Is he going back to read volume after volume of "Green Hornet" comic books? "Not so much," he replied. "With 'Green Hornet' I've been listening to all the old radio shows and I've watched the one season of the TV show they did (in 1966 which starred Van Williams as the Hornet and introduced Bruce Lee as Kato). In terms of the comic stuff, I was very familiar with it from when I was a collector -- the more recent comic stuff, not the old 1940s or 1950s comics. But I also looked at other comic books for inspiration. You read a bunch of stuff that gets you pumped up."

Smith's connections to the world of comic books go beyond moviemaking. "We have a comic book store in Redbank, New Jersey called 'Jay and Silent Bob's Silent Stash.' We've had it since '97 and it's been very successful. It's a comic book store and we sell a lot of memorabilia and merchandise from our movies. We put up a lot of props from all the movies we've worked on. Now we're going to open up a version (of this store in L.A.) in Westwood. We're aiming for June 1 (to open) right now."

[Pedro]

it's a cameo now, baby!

[brockly]

it's a cameo now, baby!

that's what they want you to think...

[MacGuffin]

Kevin Smith just did a huge interview with Hero Realm and aside from talk of "Jersey Girl", the "Green Hornet" came up and he spoke a LOT about how Miramax will be involved in the production process - click here for that.

Kevin Smith: Money Back If Dissatisfied

Hollywood director Kevin Smith is so confident his latest movie Jersey Girl is a masterpiece, he's offering a ticket refund to anyone dissatisfied with it. Smith, who directs Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in the film, claims Affleck has given the performance of his life in the forthcoming movie. But he does admit to worrying about how the critical and commercial mauling given to the ex-couple's last film, Gigli, will affect the box-office takings of Jersey Girl. Smith says, "After Gigli, I was, like, 'Oh man - our jobs just got much harder.' But it's not Gigli 2: Bennifer Strikes Back. We're a comeback picture. Affleck has never been as good as he is here. If you're not satisfied, I'd be willing to stand at the door of theaters and be like, 'You don't have to pay.'"

I don't know how true this is.  Nothing of it has been mentioned on his official site or message board.

M: There was an article about you refunding people's money if they don't like “Jersey Girl.”

KS: That was horse shit! That was me getting pulled out of context. I would never make that claim solely because even if people absolutely love the movie, they would still want their money back. The dude offered, right? “Entertainment Weekly” had the quote that said something like “I would almost be willing to stand outside theaters and tell people they didn't have to pay.” Suddenly that went to “Smith offering money back guarantee!” That's not the case. In this very litigious culture we live in, you know there's a class action lawsuit lying in wait where people are going “He said he was going to give our money back.”

[grand theft sparrow]

But most of all, it's about... 103 minutes long.

I remember a few months ago, he was saying that he was having a hard time trimming it down from a 138 minute running time.  

That's a lotta missing J. Lo.

[Banky]

another review

Jersey Girl: Drama/Comedy. Starring Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Raquel Castro. Directed by Kevin Smith. (PG-13. 103 minutes. Opens March 26th, nationwide.)
While this particular film would appear to have fairly little in common, thematically, with earlier films by director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Hercules and Xena), the currents that run (not silent, but deep) beneath should be more than obvious to any maturing fan of the auteur's work.

Smith's signature style, which many believe came to its fruition in Dogma, is the subtle, yet ofttimes brash manner in which he has captured the male/male and male/female dynamic. In his earlier films, he completely obliterates the staid conventions of stunted and faux interactions between friends, lovers, and competitors, and offers the viewer a raw portal into the way real people interact in real life situations. Granted, not many of us have to oversee a much-pined over ex-girlfriend hauled away mentally shaken after having sex with a cadaver, but Smith attempts, admirably I might add, to show you how you probably would react. Moving forward to Jersey Girl, Smith has turned his piercing gaze and penchant for sharp, insightful dialogue onto the father/daughter dynamic, with uncannily accurate and invariably joyous results.

Although many of the negatives associated with this movie revolved solely around casting (in case you currently inhabit a charming studio flat underneath a sedimentary or limestone rock, this movie features Wonder Twins "Bennifer"), immediately branding this movie "Gigli 2: Fail Harder" would serve as both a disservice to the cast, as well as to the 47 people who actually saw the ill-fated first cinematic outing of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. This cast shines from the opening bell (shortly after the Pixar-inspired animation featuring Greek chorusesque Jay and Silent Bob from previous Smith films) to emotion-soaked finish.

Oft-maligned yet charmingly, and oddly veteran Ben Affleck (Paycheck, Changing Lanes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)) opts to do more than just show up on the set, churning out what can only be described as Kevin Smith inspired acting gold. It's hard to put one's finger on it, and define it as a tangbile thing, but Affleck shines when under Smith's tutelage in such a way as to forget such painfully maladroit performances as "Reindeer Games" and "Pearl Harbor." Perhaps its the deceptively intelligent dialogue, perhaps its the trust he's shown, perhaps its pixie dust secreted away in one of Smith's frequently worn custom baseball jerseys, but when Affleck acts for Smith, he is transformed into a completely different person.

Always lovely, almost to the point of distraction, Liv Tyler (The Lord of the Rings, Aerosmith: The Reckoning) turns in one of the most disarmingly earnest performances of her young career. Although most viewers will recognize her most clearly as the Elven cardboard stand-up "Arwen" from the LOTR trilogy, Tyler definitely shows a more human side in this outing. Her delivery of verbal barbs, cockney rhymes, and most of all, incredibly gut-wrenching brave lies keeps your eyes and ears glued to her whenever she graces the screen. Her acting was effortless and her demeanor charming throughout, defying viewers not to fall in love with her goofily sultry charms.

Vanimle sila tiri, Liv...Amin naa lle nai.

The real find in this cinematic haystack is newcomer Raquel Castro (Third Watch, 2nd grade). She has an innate ability to communicate more with a glance than a dumpster full of semaphores. Most child actors come to the plate with that doe-eyed precociousness that makes you want to pinch their cheeks until acidic regurgitation ensues; and while Raquel does indeed have both aforementioned arrows in her quiver, she only uses them when necessary, and never in lieu of more accomplished and appropriate skills. When she rages, she rages, when she loves, she loves, and when she whines, she whines...she is exactly what a girl at that age, in that situation would be. When she smiles, you smile, until your cheeks hurt, and you feel good for having done it.

Any discussion of the cast would be remiss if it failed to include acerbic comedy legend turned cuddly yet bristly, George Carlin. Cast as Affleck's character's father, Carlin ably shows previously untapped reserves of pathos, yearning, and tough love, as he helps his wayward son realize that its time become who he is, not who he used to be. Unless previously overlooked, this might be Smith's first foray into the father/son dynamic, and, true to form, he doesn't fail to squarely nail it. As much as this movie seems to serve as a love letter to Smith's daughter, I think it clearly tacks a "P.S." 'I love and miss you, Dad.' to Smith's recently passed away father. Both messages are delivered clearly, and poignantly.

Rounding out the cast is American Pie's amiable Jason Biggs, NewsRadio's irascible Stephen Root, Ed's curmudgeonly Mike Starr, and the previously hinted at Jennifer Lopez. While the former performers are all admirable in supporting roles (please stop trying to suss out whether Root and Star are meant to be a kinder, more gentler Jay and Silent Bob), Jennifer Lopez steps up to the plate and delivers a fantastic, yet sadly aphoristic performance. Lopez (Anaconda, In Living Color) has little time to shine, but shine she surely does, most often as playful foil to career-obsessed Affleck. Its not the intent of this article to reveal why Lopez' role is truncated in this film, regardless of what you may have read about 'cutting room floor' and the break up of the once tabloid-friendly couple, but suffice it to say that the chemistry between these two stars could have easily filled an entire movie; and perhaps should have, had their first outing been helmed by a superior director.

My prediction, about this film, is that if it is able to avoid the bulk of the pre-hype Bennifer fallout spin, it has a very good chance of not only breaking, but obliterating the 30 million glass ceiling Mr. Smith's movies seem to have run up against.

Advisory: This film contains partial nudity, bear baiting, sex jokes and drug references

this comment should seal the deal for everyone

Not since watching E.T. have I experienced such a wide range of emotion from a movie. Writer/Director Kevin Smith created what will certainly become a classic. There was richness and depth of emotion that we haven't seen from him in the past. The cast worked well as an ensemble and this was Ben Affleck's best performance yet. You will want to see this movie more than once.

[SHAFTR]

Banky, I saw the site that review was from...go back to it and look to the right of the column, there are some job listings...I question the validity of that review.

[Banky]

i knew it wasnt really from the San Fransico Chronicle but it could still be a real review

[Ghostboy]

Just please don't go expecting anything close to E.T.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Banky, this is your PDL, isn't it?

[Banky]

well yeah i never thought of it like that but this to me is like a PTA movie opening soon to you.  I dont know if i phrased that right but i think you know what i mean.  You know i have just been a fan of Smith's for a long long time and its good to see one of his films being positivley reviewed and anticipated.  I have really high expectations for this movie and i really really hope that it will do well at the box office.  Thats why all you fuckos have to go see it opening weekend.  I hope that all of you have put aside that PTA/Smith rivalry bullshit from a while back.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Yeah, the rivalry never really meant much to me. I just really don't like Kevin Smith movies.