Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl is probably director Kevin Smith's most mainstream film to date. Smith is usually the man for quirky and grotesque comedies, but Jersey Girl is more of a drama than a comedy.

Ollie Trinkè's career at a leading record company in New York is in full swing, and he finds it hard to put it on standby and concentrate instead on his lovely wife, Gertrude, with whom he is expecting a child. Ollie's life is truly turned upside down when Gertrude dies in childbirth - or is it? Ollie cannot see that he cannot go on working 80 hours a week while also looking after his little daughter, Gertie.

While Ollie drowns his grief in work, his father Bart in New Jersey has to look after Gertie, even though he also has his job as a street sweeper to attend to. One morning Bart says enough is enough, and Ollie reluctantly has to drag the baby along to a big press conference, where in sheer frustration he loses his head, causing a huge scandal. Ollie is fired on the spot.

8 years later Ollie is still a single father and street sweeper in New Jersey, where he and Gertie live with Bart. Gertie is thriving, the three generations live together in harmony, and the young student Maya, who works in the video shop, is actually very sweet. Even so, Ollie dreams of making his comeback in the music business, even though his name is still met with scornful laughter.

Jersey Girl cannot be accused of being original, and it also tends towards the saccharine and predictable, but the characters are likeable, and the protagonist Ollie's difficult choice between family and career is a real dilemma, even if it is somewhat simplified in this story.