Jersey Girl

In 2004 Kevin Smith, director of a series of fan-acclaimed “dick and fart joke” movies, made his first PG-13 movie. It was a heart-warming tale which I feel is still a very strong film, even if it does follow some of the genre's formulas. However, Smith had the misfortune of casting a very popular couple who would soon become very unpopular. I'll just say it: Bennifer killed Jersey Girl.

Which is sad. I mean, it's not a great movie, but it's a good one. If I had to pick a great family movie about a father trying to take responsibility in his life, I'd pick Jersey Girl, because while it isn't very different in the basics, Smith's creativity and humor shows up in the nuances. I can forgive that Jersey Girl ends with the Father, Ben Afflec, running down the street to popular music from the 80's to get to his daughter's musical recital in time, because the song they perform is “God that's Good” from Sweeney Todd. It's heartwarming in a very cheesy and, conversely, dark way.

Some of the things that follow from Smith's other movies into this one is that the characters have many problems, and they don't exactly get “fixed” by the end of the film. More than that, the characters often succeed because they're screw-ups and because they don't know what they want. This way, the film isn't about morals, it's about Afflec's journey to becoming a responsible parent. In the end, he only gets part of what he wants, he just finds out it's the good part.