OK, so last night we finally got to see Kevin Smith’s film, “Jersey Girl,” the one that stars Affleck with a cameo by Lopez.

That sound of 1,000 people exhaling simultaneously in the Ziegfeld Theatre was the audience — which had held its collective breath in anticipation of another “gobble, gobble” turkey — relaxing and actually enjoying this romantic comedy.

It’s not bad, you could hear people saying under their breath. In fact, it’s OK, it’s pretty good.

Even the biggest naysayers will never be able to say “Jersey Girl” is “Gigli II.” As purely a date movie, it works, and it’s even a little more than that, thanks to Smith’s under-handedness and inside jokes.

You knew the director of “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy” couldn’t just make a straight-ahead studio comedy. “Jersey Girl” has just enough “meta” stuff in it to make Smith’s fans happy.

For example: a video rental store filled with only Miramax titles, lots of smart references to Catholicism (Mel Gibson should pay attention to these), the voice of Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein on a phone call from one of Affleck’s fictional clients.

J-Lo does in fact start out in the movie as Affleck’s wife, but she is quickly dispensed with. That part of the film lasts about 12 minutes, and Lopez’s departure is actually affecting.

From then on, though, the movie takes shape as Affleck plays the widowed dad of a 7-year-old girl (Raquel Castro, a frighteningly gifted actress). George Carlin is Ben’s grumpy blue-collar dad, and Liv Tyler — in a really neat performance — is his love interest.

Affleck and Tyler, who starred together in “Armageddon,” have terrific chemistry that isn’t forced. It helps that Smith has written them a slow-paced, open-ended, off-beat romance.

For Affleck, who often seems stiff in non-action roles, the work here hearkens back to “Chasing Amy” and “Good Will Hunting.”

Tyler, though, makes the biggest leap forward after three years of speaking Elvish in “Lord of the Rings.” She has a nice comic quality, previously seen only in Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune.” Now Tyler seems surer of herself, and ever more charming.

Like a lot of studio films, “Jersey Girl” has a lot of logic problems. They mostly concern Affleck and his job as a music publicist, which he loses. That part of the film is sort of “Jerry Maguire Lite” but without the little nuances of verisimilitude that would help make “Jersey Girl” more convincing. There’s also a little too much soundtrack music, including, improbably, Bruce Springsteen’s “My City in Ruins.”

On the upside, there’s a new Aimee Mann song. But one or two fewer jukebox hits would have been just fine.

And there’s also a recreated scene from “Sweeney Todd” that’s performed well enough but is too long a joke. (The 7-year-old chooses it for her school talent show, while all the other kids sing “Memory” from “Cats.”)

As a “Sweeney Todd” aficionado, I’m always happy to hear the show’s score. Smith told me last night how much the show meant to him, too. I just don’t know if it works in the middle of this story.

Still, “Jersey Girl” should be a good-sized hit along the lines of “Love Actually” or “While You Were Sleeping.” I think it will break the Miramax jinx of not being able to make and market romantic comedies. The long list of failures includes “Duplex,” “Serendipity” and “Kate & Leopold.”

I’m sure there will be those who will harp about inconsistencies. But this is a commercial success with some nice smart stuff included. And pretty much everyone comes out a winner. You can’t ask for more than that.