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Jersey Girl
Miramax Films


7.7

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 41 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 on appeal for language and sexual content including frank dialogue

Starring Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Raquel Castro, Jason Biggs, Jennifer Lopez, Stephen Root, and Mike Starr

An honest, heartfelt and often amusing story about the man who wanted it all but got all that he needed. (Miramax Films)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Kevin Smith
DIRECTED BY:	Kevin Smith
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 7, 2004 Video: September 7, 2004 Theatrical: March 26, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	103 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Eloquent and unapologetically cute.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Liv Tyler is a very particular talent who has sometimes been misused by directors more in love with her beauty than with her appropriateness for their story. Here she is perfectly cast.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

Has more heart up on the screen than any film I’ve seen in recent years. I mean, we’re talking sappy, sweet, heart wrenching sentimentality.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's an unabashedly square picture, and proud of it. It is also a warm, funny, earnest movie, a stand-up exercise in a kind of Hollywood melodrama -- the feel-good weepie -- that has long been out of fashion.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Though Smith loses many of his past efforts' familiar trappings--Jay and Silent Bob are now confined to the production-company logo--Jersey Girl plays to Smith's strengths like no film since "Clerks."

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The minute the movie flashes forward seven years and Castro takes over as Affleck's grade-school-age daughter: The whole enterprise suddenly becomes rather charming.

USA Today Mike Clark

Smith 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. The film is not only defensible as a cute one-shot, but also as a positive sign for the future.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The biggest problem with Jersey Girl may not be exactly its fault; what is up there on the screen is cute and funny and heartfelt, even if it is unflinchingly formulaic.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Jersey Girl is an oddity, hard to dislike but impossible to buy.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Overall it's an enjoyable cruise down the Garden State Parkway, and Affleck and Castro are charming companions.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

As an ode to fatherhood, Jersey Girl is sweet without being particularly deep; but Smith is really onto something when he nudges against the ways in which the geographic landscape of a life merges with the genetic one.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

For all of its good-natured guff, Jersey Girl chooses uncomplicated sentiment over the messy complications of real life.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

In Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith wears his heart on his sleeve - and on his pants, socks, boxers and backward-facing baseball cap.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Affleck is modest and engaging, which keeps the movie out of "Gigli" territory. But it's close.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A lackluster melodrama with only a few inspired moments.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Smith stumbles setting up dramatic confrontations and strains credibility a time or two with implausible moments.

Variety Joe Leydon

A bland slab of sentimental hokum that proves even the most smart-alecky of indie auteurs can turn warm and fuzzy on occasion.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The film's overall construction is faulty. Its dramatic situations ring consistently false, and the story is phony as anything off the Hollywood assembly line. And yet, it's sincere phony.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Mainly bad, and a shockingly bland departure from a hitherto spunky guy.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

Jersey Girl may have come from his soul, but it contradicts the charm of a Kevin Smith movie.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Startlingly immature.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Smith has called friend Ben Affleck his muse, and this picture is just as bland and superficially pleasant as its star.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Combines absurd male fantasy and grating chick-flick cliche.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

For some four fifths of its length, Jersey Girl is as square as a turnpike-diner place mat.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Smith used to make movies to make fun of movies like Jersey Girl; now he's just another guy working the assembly line, which won't make you a sell-out if no one buys it.

Empire Olly Richards

Sweet, formulaic entertainment, but occasionally clunky.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It might have been a marketing nightmare, but if Lopez and Tyler had switched roles, it would have been a better movie.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The 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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Despite that frisson of naughtiness and the occasional smile, Jersey Girl is overall too bland to hold our interest.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Both stars are atrocious -- but the real blame for this cosmically self-indulgent disaster lies with Kevin Smith, who directs like a proud father who can't stop showing you pictures of his kids. And here's the thing: The brats are ugly.

Village Voice Ed Park

Aware of its awfulness.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The film oozes sentimentality, soap-opera bathos and clumsy cribbings from the Frank Capra book of small-town values. Those are its good points.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

If Affleck stumbles, Smith's script does nothing to catch his fall. Surprisingly, Smith's truest talent – that of writing – is Jersey Girl's weakest link.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Sadly, Mr. Smith has made a movie so false and blatantly icky that it's the film equivalent of making goo-goo noises and chucking a baby under the chin for 103 minutes. At the end, all you're left with is drool and a mountain of baby powder.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The nadir of the movie -- or cheesy zenith -- is Ollie's sodden soliloquy, delivered in the presence of his baby, in which he laments the loss of her mother and his wife. All that's missing are the strains of Ravel's "Pavane For a Dead Princess."

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevin gave it a4:
While "Jersey Girl" certainly doesn't break any new ground, it is heartfelt and overwhelmingly cute. In the lighter, humorous moments, the film succeeds wonderfully, but everything falls apart in the sappy scenes.

Taras E. gave it a10:
Simply great.

Mitch A. gave it a9:
This film may be soppy and extremely sentimental, but do they always have to be bad points. Not the usual Kevin Smith film, but for what it lacks in dick jokes and snootchie bootchies it makes up for in heart.Very funny!!

Janette F. gave it a10:
A movie with a heart.

Alex N. gave it a9:
I would start off by saying that while I have seen a large portion of Smith's body of work, I am in no way a "fan" of any of his prior View Askew films. I find his self-referential and often scatological humor to be trite, obscene, and pointless. That said, he has skill in working actors to give performances in tune to the environment of the work. This piece may not be similar to Smith's earlier, less family-oriented work, but it is important to remember that Spielberg made both "Amistad" AND "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial." A director has no responsibility to his earlier work, and Smith's "Jersey Girl" stands alone just fine as a dramatic piece about family, love, life, losses, and how adults cope with the world around them. This is not, as so many people claim, a family film, but rather a film about family. It is intended for adult audiences - adult in both senses of the word - people who search only for Smith's juvenile humor will be sorely disappointed with this film. This is a film for parents, for mature viewers looking for an easy watch, for people who want a film that has something to say, but also remembers its primary role as entertainment. Sure, it isn't Doctor Zhivago, but at least it isn't Mallrats. It is moving, thoughtful, entertaining, and even if it is a little too sweet, that's better than the alternative. Worth the rental for you and your girlfriend, wife, partner, etc.

Petro M gave it a6:
I really dont understand why critics where so harsh about this movie. It s a sweet, relaxing and family type of a movie, that never even pretended to be a runner for an Oscar. Fairly enjoyed it. cheers.

Chris gave it a 2:
All of kev's other movies own - this one was a joke.

Jersey Girl Miramax Films

Jersey Girl
Miramax Films