Jersey Girl

REVIEW
Writer/director Smith continues to expand his horizons with this feel-good flick, but miscalculates with a script that's too smutty for families and too schmaltzy for his fanbase. Affleck is in his romantic element as a widower who cracks and loses his NYC job, relocating to Jersey with his young daughter (the saccharine Castro), who's the Jersey Girl of the title. His broken heart is mended by video clerk Tyler, while fatherly advice is handed down by the acerbic Carlin. There's a whole lot of sex talk, mostly from a carnal Tyler, and some of it shows that old Smith spark. However, the plot machinations are straight from screenwriting 101, leading to a predictably heart-tugging denouement. Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography makes for Smith's best-looking film to date, though with such pedestrian material it just makes this disappointment seem even slicker. Infamously, Lopez (Affleck's beau at the time) provides an uncomfortable cameo as his doomed wife.