Ollie Trinke is a young, suave music publicist who seems to have it all, with a new wife and a baby on the way. But life deals him a bum hand when he's suddenly faced with single fatherhood, a defunct career and having to move in with his father. To bounce back, it takes a new love and the courage instilled in him by his daughter.
This kind of weepy material works in the hands of melodrama masters like Douglas Sirk or Pedro Almodovar. But here, it's over-the-top and it's just horrible.
– Desson Thomson,
Washington Post,
26 Mar 2004
rotten:
The filmmaker drowns his trademark edgy stew of smutty humor, stiff acting and dime-store insight into human nature with a gravy of glutinous bathos, making for a singularly unpalatable dish.
– Michael O'Sullivan,
Washington Post,
26 Mar 2004
fresh:
Inspired by Smith's own awe and amazement at being a father, the movie is modest and entertaining, with a minimum of sentimental goo, and it demands little of us except a good-natured willingness to go with it.
– Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com,
27 Mar 2004
rotten:
The grating sense of commercial calculation in Jersey Girl consistently undercuts Smith's fine writing.
– J. R. Jones,
Chicago Reader,
27 Mar 2004
rotten:
The script stoops to cheap gags that undercut Affleck's efforts to sustain a believable character.