PAULSBORO — Jersey girl Geraldine Melvin is returning to her roots to see her hometown silver screen debut.

After leaving the borough 60 years ago upon moving to Philadelphia, Melvin, 87, a 1933 Paulsboro High School graduate, is making the trek Wednesday to see the local advance screening of director Kevin Smith’s “Jersey Girl.” The film, which stars Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin and Raquel Castro and features Jennifer Lopez, was partially filmed in the borough and Philadelphia, during 2002.

“I just wonder whether there’s some people that I went to school with who are still living down there,” Melvin, who was born Geraldine Aberman, wondered aloud. “I’m sort of anticipating perhaps meeting Kevin Smith.”

Her daughter-in-law Cheryl Faye Schwartz of Bensalem, Pa., credits Smith himself, with reuniting Melvin with her residence of yesteryear.

Schwartz met Smith last year at a party in Red Bank and mentioned that it would be nice for her mother-in-law — who enjoyed Smith’s jab at Catholicism in “Dogma” — to return for the Paulsboro “Jersey Girl” showing. Concerned that tickets would not be available because neither of the women currently live in Paulsboro, Schwartz reconnected with Smith via the Internet last week. And, the movie-maker didn’t disappoint.

“He said, ‘Let me see what I can do,’ ” Schwartz said. “The next day I had an e-mail from the mayor … Here’s the Paulsboro resident who got the tickets for us.”

Mayor John Burzichelli said he was happy to help.

“She’s coming to her alma mater,” Burzichelli said of Melvin, noting that the gesture shows Smith is a “real guy.” “It was typical Kevin Smith. He thought enough about their circumstances.”

Smith has become well-known for his tongue-in-cheek humor, which tends to appeal to younger audiences through colorful characters Jay and Silent Bob. Still, Melvin said she’s never too old for a good laugh.

“I might be a senior citizen in age, but I keep forgetting how old I am,” Melvin said. “I think the way young people think. I like young people much better than old people.”

For the former piano teacher and mother of two, next week’s showing will reacquaint her with the place where her fond, early memories — many from her former Delaware Street residence — still thrive.

“It’s just a totally, totally different town now,” Melvin said of the Paulsboro she knew and loved. “As Cheryl was mentioning these various sites to me, I felt as though I was looking down from another planet. I remember when there were no paved streets. I remember a little wooden church about a block from where I lived.”

If you go

Writer/director Kevin Smith will present a special local screening of “Jersey Girl” Wednesday at Paulsboro High School at 7 p.m.