Jersey Girl has been a rough ride for Kevin Smith, and you have to feel bad for anyone who's had to take a labor of love and dismantle it in the name of commerce. Early on, during shooting, everyone was excited about the
project. Smith and crew were striving hard to do something new. But then Gigli comes out and takes a beating. This is followed by a barrage of
so-called Kevin Smith fans proclaiming the affable film maker has sold out simply because Jersey Girl has a different tone than his other pictures, and also features Jennifer Lopez as Affleck's wife.

After Gigli tanked, reports started surfacing that Miramax was worried about how to handle Jersey Girl. Through it all, Smith maintained that everything was fine and he continued to push the film through TV appearances, college appearances and through web sites like viewaskew.com and moviepoopshoot.com.

I've talked to a few people who associate with Smith, and they revealed to me that the film was in fact cut and clearly, Lopez's involvement was scaled back. This is obvious just from a marketing standpoint. How many previews have you actually seen that feature the Jennifer Lopez?

So apparently, the original cut of the picture was in the neighborhood of two hours and ten minutes, and the version that's been released in theaters is around one hour and forty minutes. Does this effect the flow of the movie? Absolutely! Does it make Jersey Girl a bad film? Absolutely not!

Jersey Girl is a huge departure for Smith in that it doesn't take place in the View Askewniverse. This means no Jay and Silent Bob (save for a
production company intro cameo), and it also means a lot less of the colorful references usually associated with a Kevin Smith film.

What were left with is a straight forward comedy about life, love and the importance of family. And while much of Jersey Girl is comprised of moments we've seen in several other movies, it, more often than not, rebounds thanks to Smith's wit and entertaining dialogue.

Many of the emotional moments in film don't quite resonate because of a lack of character development (granted I'm sure the stuff that was cut out would have had an impact on this).

Jersey Girl stars Ben Affleck as Ollie Trinke, a self-assured (and often selfish) music publicist embarking on the greatest adventure of his life;
that of the family man. When a tragedy occurs, he is forced to make decisions that could very well destroy his career. Ultimately, he is left
with the tough task of raising his daughter Gertie (I can only assume that she was named after the Drew Barrymore character in E.T.) alone.

Some might say that Kevin Smith was instrumental in giving Affleck a big push in his career. It was, after all, Affleck's work in Chasing Amy that really established him as a talent to watch. It also paved the way for he and Matt Damon (who makes a cameo in Jersey Girl along side Kevin Smith regular Jason Lee) to get Good Will Hunting off the ground.

Affleck is quite good here in a role that Tom Cruise might have played fifteen years ago, although I must confess, some of his more dramatic moments don't quite ring true. One scene in particular has him shouting at his young daughter and uttering a line I didn't find believable at all. It wasn't necessarily the way the line was written but rather the way it was
delivered. Still, this is a side of Affleck we haven't seen since Chasing Amy and he's much better at light romantic comedy than he is at action.

Liv Tyler is sweet, charming and nutty as an odd, free spirited video store clerk Maya, a young woman who develops a crush on Ollie.

George Carlin is surprisingly understated and in full on grandpa mode as Ollie's working class father. While he uses the "S" word a couple of times, this a side of Carlin we've never really seen before. He even has a moment of true drama towards the end of the picture.

Little Raquel Castro is adorable, and she could easily pass for Affleck and Lopez's daughter. As cute as she is, she spends much of the film exuding childlike attitude and unleashing an undeniably bright smile. What's missing is an attempt at real emotional depth, but then the piece isn't really written that way. She is simply on screen to be cute, and that she is.

It's hard to know how effective Jennifer Lopez actually is in this movie, because she's hardly in it. I think she clocks in at around seven minutes of screen time. It's a real shame. I think many forget that Lopez is capable of great work. She was terrific in Out of Sight and Selena. It really disgusts
me that because of the disaster that was Gigli, Jersey Girl had to suffer. The studio really should have put more faith in her and the project.

As I stated, Kevin Smith is working with familiar material here but he does punch it up with some terrific word play. There really are some outstanding moments in Jersey Girl, my favorite being a conversation between Ollie and a certain big time movie star who's mentioned throughout the film. The scene in question is sincere and beautifully played.

The relationship between Oliver and Maya is interesting if a tad rushed, but Affleck and Tyler do play off of each other nicely, and the lack of physical intimacy was quite refreshing.

The big climax features that all too familiar scenario in which Ollie has to get to his daughter's school play on time. While such moments have been played to death in the movies, two things set this film apart. Firstly,
Ollie is actually supposed to be in the play with his daughter, and secondly, their play choice is rather...unconventional.

One of my favorite aspects of Jersey Girl is it's time frame. While John Hughes constantly captured the spirit of the 80's, Smith seems to be doing the same with 90's. His earlier films had a fanboy sensibility paying homage to the works of Spielberg and Lucas, but in Jersey Girl, we get Independence Day and Cats references. Even the opening scene in Jersey Girl in which school children read prepared speeches about their parents, appeared to be a nod to Kindergarten Cop (a likable, underrated 90's gem), a movie that I constantly recite lines from with my friends.

I adore Kevin Smith. He isn't a showoff. He's just a smart, down to earth guy who loves movies and now gets a chance to make his own. Of his resume, Chasing Amy remains my favorite. It's clearly his most honest and mature work. Jersey Girl is certainly far less irreverent than his past works and it has moments of sincerity no doubt triggered by real life events (his father recently passed away), but as I watched this movie, I couldn't help but wish I'd been able to see the film that Smith wanted us all to see. I can only hope that the DVD release will show us what we missed out on. As it stands, this theatrical cut is sweet, well intentioned and enjoyable enough. At the very least, it's much better than 50 First Dates.