The script stoops to cheap gags that undercut Affleck's efforts to sustain a believable character.
Comment
06/23/08
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Jersey Girl (2004)
30
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:11
Rotten:26
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: Full of cloyingly sentimental cliches.
Theatrical Release:Mar 26, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $25,197,718
Synopsis: Breaking from his signature slacker-underdog films like CLERKS, MALLRATS, and CHASING AMY, Kevin Smith delivers the feel-good family movie JERSEY GIRL. While Smith's pert one-liners and wryly... [More]
Starring: Ben Affleck, Raquel Castro, Liv Tyler, George Carlin
Director: Kevin Smith
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Reviews for Jersey Girl
Top CriticThe grating sense of commercial calculation in Jersey Girl consistently undercuts Smith's fine writing.
03/27/04
Top CriticInspired by Smith's own awe and amazement at being a father, the movie is modest and entertaining, with a minimum of sentimental goo, and it demands little of us except a good-natured willingness to go with it.
03/27/04
Top CriticThe filmmaker drowns his trademark edgy stew of smutty humor, stiff acting and dime-store insight into human nature with a gravy of glutinous bathos, making for a singularly unpalatable dish.
03/26/04
Top CriticThis kind of weepy material works in the hands of melodrama masters like Douglas Sirk or Pedro Almodovar. But here, it's over-the-top and it's just horrible.
03/26/04
Top CriticSmith is looking more and more like a developing major talent, so it could be years until we get a handle on this movie's legacy.
03/26/04
Top CriticWatching Jersey Girl is akin to being smothered by a basket of warm puppies.
03/26/04
Top CriticSmith is trying to say something heartfelt, even as he's using formulas that are unworthy of him. Thus, Jersey Girl is a step, not a misstep.
03/26/04
Top CriticAffleck may be a nice man, but he has a seemingly congenital inability to do anything convincingly, which is only made worse by Smith's apparent immunity to cloying sentiment.
03/26/04
Top CriticThis modest little date-movie may feel like a refreshing relief.
03/26/04
Top CriticThe writer-director brings nothing new to the shopworn family-vs.-work dilemma.
03/26/04
Top CriticAffleck is buried in the cliches of his role, or worse, having to react to the fatuousness of Tyler.
03/26/04
Top CriticIt's the kind of movie Hugh Grant might make, except for the way Smith has with his dialogue, which is truer and more direct than we expect.
03/26/04
Top CriticThis is a very good collection of episodes about the weekly compromises that parents make for their kids and the little dreams that children have for themselves.
03/26/04
Top CriticThis is [Smith's] first mature work in which he weds his gift for quirky dialogue and humor with genuine feeling and tries to craft a story with broad appeal.
03/26/04
Top CriticI can understand why Smith might want to bid farewell to Jay and Silent Bob, but he needs to find something better with which to advance the cause of maturity in cinema.
03/26/04
Top CriticA small movie with a big star doing some of his most appealing work.
03/26/04
Top Critic[Smith's] clerks would never have stocked it; his Amy would never have chased it; even Silent Bob might have found his voice to dump on Jersey Girl.
03/25/04
Top CriticA family-positive movie that's far more interesting than most competition in the genre, but not nearly inventive enough to stand up to Smith's other work.
03/25/04
Top CriticJersey Girl isn't Smith's best movie, but it is his most heartfelt.
03/25/04
Top CriticLatest News for Jersey Girl
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