PG-13, 102 min.
Director/Writer: Kevin Smith
Starring: Ben Affleck,
Raquel Castro, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Jason Biggs, Stephen Root, Mike Starr,
Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith
You know how there’s that
Hollywood cliché about the dad who chooses work over family all the time and
the kids or the wife or the parents don’t think that the father really
appreciates his kids the way he should. There’s always a big recital or a big
game or something at the end of the movie that the father promises the kid that
he’ll be there for, but something comes up and it looks like he’s going to miss
the kid’s special moment yet again for the final time, because this time is the
last straw and if he really doesn’t make it the kid, or the wife, or the whole
entire family is just giving up on him for good. At the beginning of the event
he has yet to arrive because after finally making the right choice instead of
the wrong one, he has run into traffic, or his car won’t start, or he can’t find
a cab, or he runs into a parade route. The child is looking for him, but she
doesn’t see him and is sad. The show goes on even though he has yet to arrive.
But, before the end, right before the really big moment for the kid, he walks
in through the back. Even though he’s in the back of the crowd, or in the wings
of the stage, the kid spies him and a smile creeps across her face, and
everything is right in the world again. I’m sure you’re familiar with this
cliché, because is has happened in literally hundreds of movies and TV shows.
Well, guess what? It’s a cliché for a reason.
I recently found myself
faced with this Hollywood moment involving my own kid’s soccer game. There was
no way I could make the game, and finish what I had to do at work. Believe it
or not, sometime you really can’t just leave the job. I know you can believe it
because if you left your job every time you wanted to or even felt you needed
to, you wouldn’t have a job. So, I had to decide if I was going to bust my ass
to maybe, but not likely make that final magic moment in my kid’s game, where
he was really very unlikely to have had any sort of life defining moment. Or
should I just give that non-existent moment up. I eventually chose the latter,
because to get there would involve not only finishing work at an unlikely time,
but also picking up my daughter from a babysitter and driving another
forty-five minutes to probably just get there in time to see the parking lot
empty. My wife didn’t hold this against me. I don’t think my kid even cared.
But it all made me think of “Jersey Girl”.
Kevin Smith’s heartfelt
movie that marked his first foray away from the Jay and Silent Bob universe is
often criticized for embracing such clichés as the ones I’ve described here.
But, a cliché is only bad if it’s handled as a formula rather than as a human
experience. “Jersey Girl” is a human experience and a wonderful example of the
clichés mentioned above. It’s a good version of the work obsessed dad cliché
because Smith made Ben Affleck’s dad a good dad and gave him good reasons for
being obsessed with the things that draw him away from his daughter’s big
moment. Unfortunately, the entire project was sucked into the backlash against
the Affleck/Jennifer Lopez relationship, which lead to the movie that people
really didn’t like, “Gigli”. But this was their first movie together, and their
relationship actually works in this one. So, It’s a shame people didn’t pay
attention to it. They’re missing out.
Another thing occurred to me
about my own experience, however. Since the main reason I chose to miss my
son’s game was so I could go get my daughter, my dilemma also parallel’s
“Sophie’s Choice” to a very minor, not anything alike degree. Maybe I should
watch that one next.
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