I've been a Kevin Smith fan for years, but my disappointment with Jersey Girl doesn't come from the lack of Jay and Silent Bob, or the fact that it isn't a typical View Askew film. I knew it wouldn't be that, and I went into the theatre just hoping to see a good film.
Jersey Girl has some nice moments, and some moments of genuine, skillful humor (especially for a musical theatre fan). However, the film as a whole is an enormous letdown for one reason: it's typical. Rather than making another typically Kevin Smith movie, Smith managed to make a typical Hollywood flick. Instead of insight, we get cloying sentimentality; instead of maturity, we get a series of cliche moments with a good-looking cast that just doesn't dazzle for whatever emotional whallop Smith thought the film would pack.
The situation and choices facing Ben Affleck's character are nothing new, and Affleck goes dutifully through the exercises, emoting when he needs to, but never really getting much out. You wind up rooting for him more or less out of the same sense of duty. George Carlin's father is depressingly tame compared to his brilliant standup routine; Jennifer Lopez is sweet but her perfunctory character never really makes any impact on the audience. Raquel Castro plays the absolute cliche end of a film child that she's written with the appropriate sweetness. Liv Tyler's character goes wildly from a toned-down character from one of Smith's earlier films in her first scenes (building up a bit of false hope that there will be something new to this blah exercise) to another cliche character in the later portions of the film. Not much of it can be blamed on anyone except the writer/director, though.
On principle, I have nothing against Smith branching out into other genres of film than those he touched on in his first five; that's an artist's choice, and should be his and no one else's. But Jersey Girl is simply settling for the typical and unambitious in film. If this is an indication of where Kevin Smith's career is heading, then I think he has lost it as a director who bears watching.
Jersey Girl has some nice moments, and some moments of genuine, skillful humor (especially for a musical theatre fan). However, the film as a whole is an enormous letdown for one reason: it's typical. Rather than making another typically Kevin Smith movie, Smith managed to make a typical Hollywood flick. Instead of insight, we get cloying sentimentality; instead of maturity, we get a series of cliche moments with a good-looking cast that just doesn't dazzle for whatever emotional whallop Smith thought the film would pack.
The situation and choices facing Ben Affleck's character are nothing new, and Affleck goes dutifully through the exercises, emoting when he needs to, but never really getting much out. You wind up rooting for him more or less out of the same sense of duty. George Carlin's father is depressingly tame compared to his brilliant standup routine; Jennifer Lopez is sweet but her perfunctory character never really makes any impact on the audience. Raquel Castro plays the absolute cliche end of a film child that she's written with the appropriate sweetness. Liv Tyler's character goes wildly from a toned-down character from one of Smith's earlier films in her first scenes (building up a bit of false hope that there will be something new to this blah exercise) to another cliche character in the later portions of the film. Not much of it can be blamed on anyone except the writer/director, though.
On principle, I have nothing against Smith branching out into other genres of film than those he touched on in his first five; that's an artist's choice, and should be his and no one else's. But Jersey Girl is simply settling for the typical and unambitious in film. If this is an indication of where Kevin Smith's career is heading, then I think he has lost it as a director who bears watching.