Review of Jersey Girl (2004) by Emmanuel T — 01 Jan 2012

Ollie has a succesful career, in which he is paid fairly but when an unexpected tragedy comes his way, he is sidelined. Now, he lives his life with his young daughter Gertie and father.

The film starts off with young Gertie at school, telling a story about her mother-who is now dead. She tells the classroom about how her parents met, and eventually got married. And then she leads them to a twist, she tells them that when her mother gave birth to her-she died in the process. When she tells this story, she narrates the entire parts of the movie in which takes place right before she is born. This is the only narration to be heard in the entire movie-the rest of it makes up its own story. Basically, it lets viewers know from the very beginning that this girl thinks of her mother very much-this makes a mournful yet pleasant theme. When Gertie was just a baby, her father did not spend much time with her. Instead he uses excuses so that his father will take care of her-rather than himself to take care of her. "Too much work today.", "Sorry I have a meeting.", "I'm on the phone." But eventually his father has had enough, so he makes an agreement with Ollie. He tells him that he can continue to live at his house on one condition: he must tuck his daughter to bed every night. He agrees, after all it's just one chore. At the first night of tucking his daughter into bed-something happens. She reminds him of her mother, he falls in love with her and now wants to spend more time with her. Soon, his job is replaced for several reasons. Now he gets to spend more time with Gertie, the film immediately falls into a faughter-daughter setting. Ollie devotes his entire life to Gertie, and has presently been single for 7 years. Chemistry is now brought in, after Ollie and Gertie go to a video store to rent a movie. In this video store, he lets his daughter pick out a movie-while he secretly pulls out a pornographic movie from the "Adults Only" section. He doesn't want his daughter to find out, so he tells the lady at the counter to replace the explicit cover with a blank one instead. She laughs, realizing that this man is buying a pornographic film while with his daughter. It's easy to tell that she has an attraction for him, she doesn't want him to pass by-so she black mails him by telling him that she is doing a survey on family men with porn. It's a funny way to bring chemistry into a movie, but truly love can work in the most strangest ways. But even though an attracting female is brought into Ollie's life, and the film as well, the father-daughter theme is never lost. However, there are some times when this film seems like a family sitcom rather then a movie because it attempts to bring too many family conflicts into the story. Watch it from the beginning, and decide rather you want to continue viewing it or not.