Tue, Jul 19, 2005

: Jersey Girl

Author: Kevin Smith

Director: Kevin Smith

I can see now why this movie flopped. The story’s incredible simple (almost too simple) about a guy whose wife dies in childbirth leaving him a daughter he must raise on his own. He moves back to his childhood home of New Jersey and dreams of being back in Manhattan, where he was a big shot once. The film’s basically about him figuring out where he belongs. Unfortunately, such a simple, sweet story is more than slightly at odds with the somewhat raunchy Kevin Smith, who likes to throw in awkward sex talk and scenes that really feel out of place and uncomfortable. (For instance, we cut from cute scenes of the eight-year-old to scenes of adults discussing masterbation.) It’s very odd. The people who’d be interested in one topic are probably not interested in the other, so I’m not sure who the film is for. I think Kevin was going for humor and the adult topics were meant to be awkwardly funny, but instead they are just awkward. The film doesn’t quite work. It’s not a bad film at all: the story’s sweet, the little girl is brilliant (she carries the movie), and the ending works, but the whole just doesn’t add up to the sum of the parts. It’s missing something, unfortunately.

Topic: [/movie]

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