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Jersey Girl is a tale of loss and self-exploration. It's the story of a man obsessed with career who learns that there are more important priorities.  
Smith assembled many familiar players from his stable of performers. Ben Affleck plays Ollie Trinke, a Manhattan music publicist.  He falls deeply in love with Gertrude Steiney (Jennifer Lopez); the two marry and have a child. (Affleck and Lopez were a couple during principal photography and their onscreen chemistry reflects their romance. )  Unfortunately, Gertrude dies after giving birth to their daughter, a victim of an unsuspected aneurysm.  Ollie is devastated. He asks his father, Bart (George Carlin), to care for little Gerty so he can throw himself back into work. His assistant, Arthur Brickman (Jason Biggs), is shocked at how soon Ollie returns to the office after his loss. But Ollie is teetering on an emotional knife-edge and he soon falls, verbally attacking the press and his client at a news conference. As one of the writers is overheard saying, "He's toast. "  Ollie's career in public relations is over.

He's forced to give up his expensive New York apartment and move back to his father's home in Highlands, New Jersey. Ollie puts out feelers in the industry and expects to soon be back doing what he does best. We rejoin Ollie's story seven years later. He's picking up his daughter (Raquel Castro) from school in the Batmobile, a city street sweeper.  Ollie has been reduced to joining his father at the Highlands Public Works Department.  Gerty's precocious and content, secure in the warmth of her father's and grandfather's love. Ollie is less than content; he continues to try to find a job in PR, with little success. In a droll scene in which he's interviewed by two industry types (cameos by Smith regulars Matt Damon and Jason Lee), he crashes and burns. Ollie manages to console himself with simpler pleasures. While taking Gerty to the video store for one of their regular visits, he sneaks into the adult section for a bit of porn. Still mourning the death of his wife, he hasn't dated since he moved to Highlands.

Fate has other plans for Ollie. Behind the counter is a lovely woman named Maya (Liv Tyler). By no small coincidence, she's a graduate student writing a thesis on men who rent pornography. The attraction and flirtation make clear where this film is going. But as predictable as this plot may be - the cute meet, the matchmaking daughter, the conflict between love and career, the desperate race to get to a school play - the charm is in the telling, the clever dialog, and in the charismatic performances. Affleck is quite effective, projecting an emotional range I cannot recall in any of his other films. Tyler is very appealing, a blend of innocent and knowing. Carlin delivers his most subtle performance to date. And young newcomer Castro comports herself very well. And Smith's dialog is funny and touching; he amuses while bringing an unexpected sweetness to his film.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (the keepcase incorrectly specifies 1.85:1) is presented in anamorphic video. This is another very soft transfer from Miramax and fine textures and small object detail suffer as a result. Halos are present, but perhaps due to the excessive low pass filtering, they seem to be of low amplitude and only a half cycle in duration. Color rendition is excellent based on natural skin tones. Shadow detail in the nighttime scenes is quite good. I did not notice any mosquito noise or macroblocking. I can only hope that Miramax has become aware of the criticism of its recent transfers (Hidalgo and Cold Mountain are other notable examples) and changes video production houses soon. It's anyone's guess how many of these disappointing transfers are still in the pipeline.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The audio track is in Dolby Digital 5.1, but with one exception, I was unaware of audio emanating from any speakers but the front. That one exception is a musical source track in which percussion was mixed into the surrounds at equal amplitude and phase, so the sound collapses to the center surround. I'll simply say that EX decoding neither helps nor hinders the audio presentation. I found the dynamic range to be somewhat constrained.   Sound effects are, of course, secondary in this genre; they only serve to support onscreen activities without calling attention to themselves. There is neither deep bass, nor are there any shimmering highs. The musical source tracks seem somewhat subdued. The critical element of the dialog remains crystal clear throughout.

The alternative language is French. Optional subtitles are available in Spanish and English for the Hearing Impaired. English Closed Captions are also on the disc.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The DVD contains two feature-length commentaries. The first is with writer-director Kevin Smith and Ben Affleck. As in a video supplement to come, this is an entertaining conversation between two friends who happened to collaborate on the making of a motion picture. Don't expect them to be scene-specific; very little of the commentary is about what's happening onscreen. Instead, they talk about the process, the inspirations for the screenplay, the other performers, and Affleck's performance. They touch on the unavoidable subject of Affleck's relationship with Jennifer Lopez and how that affected audience and critical expectations, particularly after Gigli. This is a delightful exchange that ranges from artistic decisions to insiders' views on the film business.

The second commentary track features Smith, his producer Scott Mosier, and frequent appendage Jason Mewes.  Mewes guest role is to act as a catalyst, speaking for the viewer to ask questions of the filmmakers about the production. I was surprised by his improved lucidity. Mewes has had some serious substance abuse problems and in April of 2003 he appeared in a New Jersey court to plead guilty to violating his probation from a ‘99 heroin conviction.  In a 2004 Film Fever interview, Smith was quoted as saying that, "April 6th will mark his one- year of being off of drugs. He has not drank at all and has been really clean, which is surely one of the signs of the apocalypse."  Since Smith previously had been reported as saying that Jay and Silent Bob will not return to the big screen until Mewes gets clean, this is a hopeful sign. This commentary track is more about the film, and since the content frequently devolves into a quintessential View Askew style, I thoroughly enjoyed and was amused by their conversation.

Roadside Attractions - originally produced for Jay Leno's Tonight Show - features four short, humorous road trips with Smith as he visits some rather bizarre attractions across the country. To watch them, I'd suggest maneuvering to the second screen page and select the convenient "Play All" option. After a brief explanatory introduction by Kevin Smith (1:44), we join him through Upstate New York (5:31), Orlando (5:28), Tampa (5:25), Seattle (5:09), and finish with a fifth and different visit, one to the New York City location for Jersey Girls (6:51). These shorts are funniest when Smith is interacting with others onscreen, just being a smart ass. It works least when he performs a scripted gag. This feature is shown in an odd mix of full screen and anamorphic widescreen. I wish Miramax had consistently windowpaned the full screen segments (as they did in the fifth visit) so that I didn't have to switch back and forth between two of my projector's display modes. Also on page two is an Index link that show several pages of website addresses for the attractions Smith visited.  

Ben Affleck and Kevin Smith Interview (27:08) is actually a playful chat between friends at a mixing console. The two discuss their histories together from Affleck's first appearance in a Smith film to this most recent release. It's a fast and breezy exchange with lots of ball busting. The challenge is to understand what each is saying as they speak simultaneously. One half hour of fun. Behind-the-Scenes of Jersey Girl (16:20) is the fluff piece of the DVD. This is a typical promotional short in which the cast and filmmakers describe the characters and the plot, punctuated by scenes from the film. It's designed strictly to encourage box office.  

Next is Text Interviews with Cast & Crew. Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Raquel Castro, Matt Damon, producer Scott Mosier, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, production designer Robert Holtzman, and costume designer Juliet Polcsa are featured. This might seem to be an odd supplement to find on a dynamic medium like DVD, but I found it more compelling than the typical short biographies and filmographies found on other discs.

The DVD is programmed to open with trailers for Finding Neverland (2:25) and Shall We Dance? (1:48); these may be skipped with the next chapter button. You may return to them in the Sneak Peeks feature, accessible from the main menu. The other available trailers are Dear Frankie (2:04), Raising Helen (2:27), and The Alamo (0:36). The 102- minute feature film is organized into eighteen chapters.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

There are no PC enhanced extras included.

Parting Thoughts