Jersey Girl

Hollywood favorites Ben Affleck (DAREDEVIL, PAYCHECK, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS) and Liv Tyler (LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, ARMAGEDDON) shine in this heartwarming all-star comedy about a guy who thinks he's lost it all only to discover he's got everything he needs! Ollie (Affleck) is a smooth and successful big-city publicist who has the life he's always wanted -- until things take an unexpected turn and he finds himself an unemployed single father back living with his dad in the suburbs. But just when he thinks his life has hit rock bottom, a sexy, no-nonsense video store clerk (Tyler) enters his life and shows Ollie that sometimes you have to forget who you thought you were and acknowledge what really makes you happy. Also starring Jason Biggs (AMERICAN PIE) -- director Kevin Smith (JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK) has delivered another hit critics are calling one of the year's funniest!

Jersey Girl stars Ben Affleck as a workaholic music executive who loses his wife (Jennifer Lopez) in childbirth and has to raise his newborn daughter with the help of his crotchety New Jersey dad (George Carlin). The movie unspools as if writer-director Kevin Smith, normally a highly self-aware filmmaker (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma), set out to put a fresh spin on every cliché he could imagine (parent forced to choose between child and career; parent rushing to attend school performance; etc.)--then forgot to put in the spin. The scenes that aren't lifeless are implausible (Liv Tyler plays the fantasy girl of every awkward boy's dreams). The only real feeling comes from the strong soundtrack. However, Raquel Castro, as the daughter, is an uncanny double for Lopez; when the light plays across Castro's cheekbones just so, you'd swear the casting director simply shrunk Lopez for convenience. --Bret Fetzer