Jersey Girl
Director: Kevin Smith
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 0.5
John Hughes may have taken time off from making movies but that doesn't mean that Kevin Smith can't step right in his place, turning this feel-bad premise of mothers dying and unemployment and misery into mock feel-good family love - in other words, for being a comedy this is really a downer. Smith's trademark crude humor is exchanged for kiddie giggles and repeated utterances of the word 'shit' (it's the one expletive you can use for a PG-13 rating); the 'drama' is strained, too, and every momentous event has its own musical accompaniment - it's not enough to sulk or cry in silence, you need Fleetwood Mac or Pete Townshend to flood through the speakers. Liv Tyler's sex-obsessed movie clerk is not a believable character, although Ben Affleck - in my view - tries to make the most out of it.
