Jersey Girl: Drama/Comedy. Starring Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Raquel Castro. Directed by Kevin Smith. (PG-13. 103 minutes. Opens March 26th, nationwide.)

While this particular film would appear to have fairly little in common, thematically, with earlier films by director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy,

Dogma, Hercules and Xena), the currents that run (not silent, but deep) beneath should be more than obvious to any maturing fan of the auteur’s work.

Smith’s signature style, which many believe came to its fruition in Dogma, is the subtle, yet ofttimes brash manner in which he has captured the male/male and male/female dynamic. In his earlier films, he completely obliterates the staid conventions of stunted and faux interactions between friends, lovers, and competitors, and offers the viewer a raw portal into the way real people interact in real life situations. Granted, not many of us have to oversee a much-pined over ex-girlfriend hauled away mentally shaken after having sex with a cadaver, but Smith attempts, admirably I might add, to show you how you probably would react. Moving forward to Jersey Girl, Smith has turned his piercing gaze and penchant for sharp, insightful dialogue onto the father/daughter dynamic, with uncannily accurate and invariably joyous results.

Although many of the negatives associated with this movie revolved solely around casting (in case you currently inhabit a charming studio flat underneath a sedimentary or limestone rock, this movie features Wonder Twins “Bennifer”), immediately branding this movie “Gigli 2: Fail Harder” would serve as both a disservice to the cast, as well as to the 47 people who actually saw the ill-fated first cinematic outing of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. This cast shines from the opening bell (shortly after the Pixar-inspired animation featuring Greek chorusesque Jay and Silent Bob from previous Smith films) to emotion-soaked finish.

Oft-maligned yet charmingly, and oddly veteran Ben Affleck (Paycheck, Changing Lanes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)) opts to do more than just show up on the set, churning out what can only be described as Kevin Smith inspired acting gold. It’s hard to put one’s finger on it, and define it as a tangbile thing, but Affleck shines when under Smith’s tutelage in such a way as to forget such painfully maladroit performances as “Reindeer Games” and “Pearl Harbor.” Perhaps its the deceptively intelligent dialogue, perhaps its the trust he’s shown, perhaps its pixie dust secreted away in one of Smith’s frequently worn custom baseball jerseys, but when Affleck acts for Smith, he is transformed into a completely different person.

Always lovely, almost to the point of distraction, Liv Tyler (The Lord of the Rings, Aerosmith: The Reckoning) turns in one of the most disarmingly earnest performances of her young career. Although most viewers will recognize her most clearly as the Elven cardboard stand-up “Arwen” from the LOTR trilogy, Tyler definitely shows a more human side in this outing. Her delivery of verbal barbs, cockney rhymes, and most of all, incredibly gut-wrenching brave lies keeps your eyes and ears glued to her whenever she graces the screen. Her acting was effortless and her demeanor charming throughout, defying viewers not to fall in love with her goofily sultry charms.

Vanimle sila tiri, Liv…Amin naa lle nai.

The real find in this cinematic haystack is newcomer Raquel Castro (Third Watch, 2nd grade). She has an innate ability to communicate more with a glance than a dumpster full of semaphores. Most child actors come to the plate with that doe-eyed precociousness that makes you want to pinch their cheeks until acidic regurgitation ensues; and while Raquel does indeed have both aforementioned arrows in her quiver, she only uses them when necessary, and never in lieu of more accomplished and appropriate skills. When she rages, she rages, when she loves, she loves, and when she whines, she whines…she is exactly what a girl at that age, in that situation would be. When she smiles, you smile, until your cheeks hurt, and you feel good for having done it.

Any discussion of the cast would be remiss if it failed to include acerbic comedy legend turned cuddly yet bristly, George Carlin. Cast as Affleck’s character’s father, Carlin ably shows previously untapped reserves of pathos, yearning, and tough love, as he helps his wayward son realize that its time become who he is, not who he used to be. Unless previously overlooked, this might be Smith’s first foray into the father/son dynamic, and, true to form, he doesn’t fail to squarely nail it. As much as this movie seems to serve as a love letter to Smith’s daughter, I think it clearly tacks a “P.S.” ‘I love and miss you, Dad.’ to Smith’s recently passed away father. Both messages are delivered clearly, and poignantly.

Rounding out the cast is American Pie’s amiable Jason Biggs, NewsRadio’s irascible Stephen Root, Ed’s curmudgeonly Mike Starr, and the previously hinted at Jennifer Lopez. While the former performers are all admirable in supporting roles (please stop trying to suss out whether Root and Star are meant to be a kinder, more gentler Jay and Silent Bob), Jennifer Lopez steps up to the plate and delivers a fantastic, yet sadly aphoristic performance. Lopez (Anaconda, In Living Color) has little time to shine, but shine she surely does, most often as playful foil to career-obsessed Affleck. Its not the intent of this article to reveal why Lopez’ role is truncated in this film, regardless of what you may have read about ‘cutting room floor’ and the break up of the once tabloid-friendly couple, but suffice it to say that the chemistry between these two stars could have easily filled an entire movie; and perhaps should have, had their first outing been helmed by a superior director.

My prediction, about this film, is that if it is able to avoid the bulk of the pre-hype Bennifer fallout spin, it has a very good chance of not only breaking, but obliterating the 30 million glass ceiling Mr. Smith’s movies seem to have run up against.

Advisory: This film contains partial nudity, bear baiting, sex jokes and drug references.

A Hollywood Ending

Now that the Ben and J. Lo show is over, what comes next?

By Jancee Dunn

What was your tipping point when it came to Ben Affleck, the moment you threw your hands up and said, “Enough”? Was it when he and Jennifer Lopez canceled their wedding? When he bought her a Bentley? When she fried up chicken cutlets for him on TV? When his career became secondary to their celebrity? Maybe it was the precise moment that he put his hand on her bikini-ed butt in the “Jenny From the Block” video. Until that point, the nation feasted on the details — his strip-club visit, the six-carat rock that he gave her. The Latina bombshell — with her fur coats and high heels, her ex-husbands and her appetites — and the handsome, square-jawed movie star! She’s Bronx, he’s Boston!

Then indigestion set in.

“Our relationship was written about so much that it just alienated people,” says Affleck, who claims that he is as sick of the spectacle as you are. “I feel like a guy who is almost at the finish line. Then I’ll sort of disappear for a good long time, and not be . . . this person.”

The pair’s year-and-a-half romance ebbed in January, and now Affleck is in the awkward position of having to talk about Jersey Girl, a film that actually documents their falling in love. Affleck plays a music publicist whose wife, Lopez, dies in childbirth soon after the film begins.

Jersey Girl is no Gigli fiasco — it focuses much more on his relationship with his young daughter and his later love interest, played by Liv Tyler, than it does on Lopez, whose face has been banished from the ads and posters. “This is my favorite thing that I’ve done,” says Affleck, lounging in his office at his L.A. production company, which is staffed with swinging young employees who sift through tapes for the Project Greenlight cable series that he co-produces for Bravo. Affleck recently asked Jersey Girl director Kevin Smith, his longtime pal, if he was angry at him for suggesting that Smith cast Lopez as his wife. “It was more a way of saying, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.’ I felt badly that the tabloid craziness would overshadow what is a really personal work.”

Affleck, unlike most other actors, is tall in person (six feet three). He wears jeans, work boots and a gas-station jacket. Usually gregarious, he is incredibly closed off on this particular day. He won’t make eye contact, and there are uncharacteristically long silences before he speaks.

“You caught me at the tail end of a life spent entertaining the press, and I’m a little bit weary of it, having been betrayed hundreds of times,” he says. “But don’t worry. I’ll warm up.” He looks at the floor.

OK, then. Who gets the ring? “That’s a ballsy way to start,” Affleck says with a brittle laugh. “There was no ring. It was a fraud perpetrated on the American public.” He won’t reveal the reason why the two split. “I haven’t had conversations with my close friends about this relationship.”

Smith has his own theory on the breakup. “I totally blame the media,” he says. “It’s tough to live your life under a fucking microscope, and now turn that microscope into a high-powered, shooting-into-space telescope that’s constantly focused on you like a laser. I think that really played a big, big fucking part.”

Affleck says that he still talks to his ex and allows that the split was mutual. “I think any relationship that ends, by definition, ends mutually,” he says. He clears his throat. “Sensible people are able to recognize that. I mean, relationships are mysterious and hard to fathom, but when it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, and you just have to accept it gracefully.”

He tosses a baseball in the air, faster and faster. “I’m not that interested in assigning blame, because I think it’s illusory, anyway,” he says, although he does agree with his ex-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow’s recent comment that he makes life hard for himself. “She’s probably right about that,” he says. “I trust her opinion about most things. Not all, but most. I think I probably do get in my own way.”

That said, he maintains that he is an easy person to live with. “I’m a very pleasant, low-maintenance guy,” he says. “I’m not picky about things, like the house has to be this way or that way. I don’t have some particular way I like to eat, or ‘We have to go to this restaurant.'” He lights a cigarette and takes a vigorous drag. “But really living with somebody is about more than who does the dishes and if they pick up after themselves. And in some ways I’m probably not the easiest guy in the world.” He is restless, for instance. “I have lots of interests, lots of energy, but there’s definitely a negative side to that as well.”

He and Lopez first lived together in Philadelphia during the filming of Jersey Girl, then afterward in Los Angeles in Lopez’s house. Now that he has moved out, he is staying with friends while he searches for a place to rent. He was interested in one house, but someone else had put an offer on it first. “It was Nelly,” he says ruefully. “Me and Nelly, vying to rent a house. Nelly got it, by the way.”

Affleck is self-effacing, without actorish false humility, and will beat you to any punch line about himself, making jokes about his save-the-world film roles and calling Gigli a “bomberoonie, the Ishtar of our time.” The phone rings in his office.

“I can’t pick up,” he bellows at his assistant. “The light isn’t flashing.”

“It is, too,” she hollers back.

“Quit talking about the light flashing,” yells another employee.

“You see the respect I get around here?” he says, punching the phone buttons.

In person, Affleck is deeply likable. Quick-witted, with a ribald sense of humor, he’s an excellent mimic, endlessly entertaining with a stream of constant “bits.” An equal-opportunity flirt who loves bantering back and forth, he’s the sort of guy who leaves a party and everyone else trails out five minutes later.

“He’s not completely obsessed with himself, like other people in his profession,” says his pal Chris Moore. “He can talk about who should be the next president, or why he thinks it’s OK that the Red Sox didn’t get A-Rod. And he’s just been a real loyal friend. He’s always found time to be there when I needed to talk to him.”

Affleck is fully aware of the schadenfreude directed toward him and studiously avoids reading magazines or watching any TV shows in which he might be featured. “Otherwise I’ll just get bent out of shape,” he says. “I’m not even going to jump up and down and send letters to the lawyers anymore. I tried suing. It doesn’t work.”

Affleck is used to sniping — a minibacklash occurred after Good Will Hunting, with gay rumors and whispers that he and Matt Damon didn’t write the script (in Matt and Ben, an off-Broadway play about the pair, the script falls from the sky). Some fans have been upset with Affleck’s subsequent roles in big-budget popcorn flicks such as Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, preferring that he stay on the Chasing Amy path as a John Cusack for Generation Y — a smart, sensitive everyguy.

But it was his union with Lopez that really rankled, particularly when her glittering lifestyle drew him in, and he traded his scruffy jeans and Red Sox caps for slicked-back hair and velour tracksuits (although who among you has not had a wardrobe tweaked by a new love?).

Affleck says he doesn’t know why their union caused such a hostile reaction. “Hopefully I can get far enough away from it in time to be able to get a better sense of it,” he says, although he suspects the hostility “had something to do with race and class. That pushed a button. This is a country that flew into a gigantic uproar about Janet Jackson’s breast. There’s still a heavy-duty puritan influence going on, and we still hold ourselves to a pretty chaste ideal, which includes, buried within it, the tradition of people being with people like them. We were thought of as two different kinds of people, not just racially but culturally.” Perhaps that’s why the tabloids have gone easier on Lopez dating singer Marc Anthony. Affleck lights another of his menthol Marlboro Lights. “Basically, it just came down to, ‘Wow, I never thought those two would get together.'”

While filming Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith promised the residents of Paulsboro, New Jersey that he’d return to their small town for an advanced screening of the movie they helped make possible. The promise came true on March 10.

Event goers were welcomed with a Hollywood spot light and news crews from CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, and many newspapers. Each entered Paulsboro High School on a red carpet, as a lot of residents served as extras in the movie.

During the film, residents applauded as they saw the sights and people of their town on the big screen. Even the auditorium where the screening was held made it’s way to the movie!

After showing the beautiful movie he created, Kevin himself took the stage to welcome and thank the town for the support they gave him during his time filming there. A question and answer period was held, followed by a party. Cast members were unable to attend due to work commitments, but Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson were spotted in the crowd.

All proceeds of the screening benefited the Boys and Girls Club of Paulsboro. The mayor speculated, that after sales from party tickets were complete, that probably $20,000 was earned for the organization!

A major highlight of the night came during the Q&A. The chief of the Paulsboro Fire Department thanked Kevin and the cast of Jersey Girl for signing a fire helmet which will be auctioned off on eBay to raise money for the department. The chief said that the monies earned “will help save a life in some way because it will help purchase a Jaws-of-Life or a Thermal Imaging Camera.” Without hesitation, Kevin told the chief that he would match whatever price the helmet sells for.

During the Q&A, Kevin said that a cameo in the movie (who you will have to see for yourself) “totally replaced Affleck as the nicest guy in the business.” Sorry Kevin, but after constant interaction with your fans, helping raise $20,000 for a Boys and Girls Club, and promising funds for life-saving firefighing equipment, you are the nicest and greatest guy in the business!

First of all, it was a surreal experience viewing the movie from the auditorium where some of it was filmed. Watching on screen the Paulsboro High auditorium while you’re sitting in the same seats that are on the screen is mind-blowing. Secondly, several people spoke to us as if they knew us. I had no idea why until Mom mentioned that my picture was on the front page of the newspaper with the interview the reporter did on Mom a few days ago. This really blew me away because I hate having my picture taken. I made an exception at Stash Bash 2 and allowed myself to be photographed with Kevin and Jason (for the first time in 30 years). I e-mailed the picture to the reporter so that she would recognize me. I had no idea she was going to put it in the paper. So here’s photophobic me on the front page of the Jersey newspaper. The Universe works in strange and perverted ways.

What can I say about the movie? Well, here’s what I wrote for the New York Times:

A New Classic Is Born

Reviewer: cherpup (a combination of cheryl and nastypup)

Not since watching E.T. have I experienced such a wide range of emotion from a movie. Writer/Director Kevin Smith created what will certainly become a classic. There was richness and depth of emotion that we haven’t seen from him in the past. The cast worked well as an ensemble and this was Ben Affleck’s best performance yet. You will want to see this movie more than once.

After the movie, I got to thank Kevin for contacting Mayor Burzichelli and having tickets sent so that Mom could return to her birthplace (Paulsboro) and see the movie. I wanted everyone in the audience to know how good and sincere Kevin really is and I’m glad I got the chance to tell them. Here’s another example of the stellar human being Kevin is. Kevin and the other cast members signed a fire helmet to be auctioned on ebay. The Fire Chief said that the money would go to purchase life-saving equipment and elaborated that Kevin’s movie would actually save lives. Kevin was genuinely touched by that statement and, without hesitation, he said, “Whatever you make on ebay, I’ll match.” The crowd cheered loudly and I had tears in my eyes.

As I pulled up in front of Mom’s house, I looked at my clock and thermostat in my car. The time was 12:57 AM and the temperature was 37 degrees. I took it as a good omen 😉

If you have already seen “Jersey Girl,” please click on the link below and rate and/or write a review for the New York Times. Lets help Kevin as much as we can.

NY Times Jersey Girl Ratings/Reviews

NJ.COM – “Paulsboro ready for premiere”

NJ.COM – “Something right out of the movies: Paulsboro shines at ‘Jersey Girl’ premiere”

Courier Post Online – “Jersey Girl’ dazzles Paulsboro”

Make a date with film critic Tom Long and a ‘Jersey Girl’

Can Ben Affleck find the meaning of life in New Jersey? Register for the Reel Talk screening of “Jersey Girl” on March 18 and find out. Reel Talk, a monthly preview screening and movie discussion program hosted by Detroit News Film Critic Tom Long, takes place at 7 p.m. at the Star Southfield, 25333 W. 12 Mile in Southfield. Registration is $30 for a year and is nonrefundable. Members must be 18 or older. All proceeds go to Michigan K.I.D.S., a nonprofit organization that provides newspapers and reading materials to schools. Seating is limited for “Jersey Girl” so register soon by visiting www.startheatres.com or www.detnews.com/movies or calling (313) 222-1457 or (313) 222-1458.

Win tickets to see ‘Jersey Girl’ on March 23

Want to see an advance screening of “Jersey Girl” on March 23 at a select metro Detroit theater?

It’s probably your last chance to see Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on the same screen. This romantic comedy is rated PG-13.

To enter to win one of 50 passes for two, send a postcard with your names, postal address and daytime phone to “Jersey Girl” c/o Allied Advertising, 40900 Woodward, Suite 300, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304. Winners at random from entries received by 2 p.m. Monday.

For me, this movie doesn’t play much differently, or isn’t too far removed from, our third movie, ‘Chasing Amy,'” Smith said in an interview Saturday.

“That movie was also a mixture of comedy and drama about relationships. Instead of a lesbian, this time around we’re dealing with a seven-year-old girl.”