..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Jersey Girl
Directed by Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith is on his way to becoming the Neil Simon for his generation, and that is not a put down. His abilities at crafting dialog that grabs your ears by the cajones, and his increasingly deft skills at structuring stories, could very well lead to a string of witty masterpieces about modern living and everything else, once he has a little more practice under his belt. His newest film, Jersey Girl, which is being released by Miramax Home Entertainment (36727, $30), is a sensible step upwards from his previous works. Most artistic efforts are intended in one form or another to satisfy an inner drive of some sort that the artist possesses, and that is the case here, but the production is also a seemingly deliberate attempt to reach out to a different, more generalized audience than Smith's past films have catered to, and while the effort came up a little short at the boxoffice, it is likely to have a much greater endurance on home video. The film has plenty of flaws. The first act is rather arch and the star, Ben Affleck, is equally stiff, trying to find his character beneath the stereotypical career-oriented overachiever. The second act, after his wife, played briefly by Jennifer Lopez, passes away and he is obligated to raise his daughter himself, is not as awkward, as Affleck's character meets an attractive video store clerk played by Liv Tyler and tries to come to terms with the blue collar life he has settled into for the sake of his child. And then the last act is near perfect, and that is the act you come away from the movie remembering. Gags and plot turns that were planted at the very beginning of the story, and others that were planted at different points all the way through, blossom with delightful exuberance. The expected emotional payoffs are all there, and some unexpected ones are also slipped in. Still, the movie might seem like a generic, feel-good concoction if it weren't for the edgy perfection that Smith achieves with so much of his dialog. From the quite funny opening scene and onward, the dialog is so intelligently real and so fresh, that when Smith does, occasionally, cop out (there is a scene where Affleck's character talks to a large group of people, and the film follows the cliché of pulling back so we can't hear what they are saying; normally that would be fine, but with Smith at the helm, you want desperately to hear what they are saying, and the scene is a letdown without it), the gap in his judgment is glaring. But that's only because he's set such a high standard for himself.

Vilmos Zsigmond was called in to do the widescreen cinematography, and so it is competently executed, thus covering the least important aspect of the movie. The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The colors are solid and sharp, though there does seem to be a weakness in contrast levels at times, losing details in the darker areas of the screen. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound is fine, although the mix is also secondary to the entertainment of the narrative. There is an alternate French audio track in 5.1 Dolby, optional English and Spanish subtitles, a lackadaisical 27-minute interview with Smith and Affleck about the movies they've made together, a tolerable 16-minute promotional documentary and a substantive collection of text interviews with the cast and crew. There is a 7-minute promo for the film that was broadcast on the Tonight Show during the shoot, along with 22 minutes of clips from a recurring Tonight Show feature starring Smith, entitled Roadside Attractions, where he visits and good-naturedly ridicules small time tourist traps in Upstate New York, Florida and Seattle (beware, the 'Play All' function for this section is on the second menu screen).

"The extras are unrated. That's why we're allowed to be blue, on a PG-13," explains Smith on one of the two commentary tracks, both of which would make a sailor blush, or even a girl from New Jersey. Indeed, while the heretofore typical Smith fan may not be so interested in the 2004 film itself, that fan may well be attracted to the DVD for the commentaries alone. On one, Smith is joined by his perennial collaborators, producer Scott Mosher and good buddy Jason Mewes. Along with describing the film's production and talking about its participants, they go into a lengthy and detailed discussion about masturbation, extensively reflect upon Mewes days as a drug addict and his recovery (Mewes lost a cameo appearance in the film because there was a warrant for his arrest in New Jersey at the time of the shoot) and speculate upon an alternate version of the film that they might have shot if the primary version had been more successful, one where the little girl was demonic.

On the other commentary track, which is even better, if not bluer, Smith talks about the film with Affleck. They start out by saying unprintable things about British gossip columnists, and then go on to (affectionately) make fun of Zsigmond's accent, talk in detail about the film's critical reception, discuss what went on during the shooting of every scene and describe the problems they had at first with the child actress playing the daughter, Raquel Castro, who delivered a smashing performance once a few odds and ends got straightened out. Of course, they also tackle the whole 'Bennifer' disaster. "You couldn't have gotten more press if you had dated a guy," says Smith, and Affleck replies, "It's true. It would have been a smaller story. You can't control what happens after you start doing a movie or whatever, but probably I have been cured of the need to try to do a movie with somebody that I'm dating, just because it does a disservice to the movie. The movie's a bigger thing, you know. It involves a lot of people's work. A lot of times, you know, particularly if it's a kind of a personal story like this one is for you, it involves years of your life, and it's just a shame that, you know, the easiest hook to write about is something that has so little to do with what's actually being said or trying to be said or trying to be accomplished. And, it's also just self-defeating, you know? You try to spend all this time and energy getting people to suspend their disbelief in these characters and lose themselves in this story and if they are just bombarded with images of you with the other person in the movie in another life, as other people, you've given yourself an uphill road to run."

Smith also announces that a version of the film that is nearly a half hour longer will be released on DVD sometime next year.

September 21, 2004

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- by Douglas Pratt

Douglas Pratt's DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter is published monthly.
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