Ben Affleck and Kevin Smith were regular collaborators and close friends for a decade, with the former admitting that the latter was integral to getting Good Will Hunting the green light at Miramax, which in turn won Affleck an Academy Award and sent his career into the stratosphere.
They also partnered up for Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, but Smith’s shift towards mainstream territory ended up coming back to bite him in the ass. Jersey Girl remains the writer/director’s most expensive movie by far at a cost of $35 million, which it barely recouped at the box office after releasing in March 2004.
Hoping to utilize the star power of Affleck, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and even Will Smith to broaden his own prospects and horizons, Smith has since admitted on countless occasions that even he isn’t a fan of the saccharine dramatic comedy, and even tried to drum up support for giving Jersey Girl the Snyder Cut treatment.
It’s debatable if a complete re-edit would even be able to salvage a monotonously predictable and transparent attempt at cloying sentimentality, in all honesty. Jersey Girl was cynically engineered to please crowds and tug at the heartstrings, but that just isn’t part of Smith’s cinematic arsenal.
However, it has been enjoying a resurgence this week on streaming, as per FlixPatrol. Jersey Girl is currently bringing up the rear on the HBO Max Top 10, even if you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has many kind words to say about the movie, and we’re including the guy who directed it.