The movie stars Ben Affleck as Ollie Trinke, a
big-time Manhattan publicist whose beloved wife Gertrude, played by Jennifer
Lopez, is great with child. Ebert admitted, “I would hesitate to reveal that
she died in childbirth if I had not already read and heard this information,
oh, like five hundred times, so obsessed is the nation with Ben and J. Lo.
Lopez is luminous in her few scenes, helping to explain why Ollie remains so
true to her memory that he remains celibate for many years.”
Meanwhile, his career falls apart. Under pressure to
hold a job while raising a daughter, he breaks down one day, brutally offending
his employers by causing a scene at the opening of a Hard Rock Café. He fails
to understand why he should take Will Smith seriously (“Yeah, like the Fresh
Prince of Bel Air is ever gonna have a movie career”). By the time the movie
continues, he has moved back to New Jersey and is living in the same house with
his father Bart (George Carlin) and his beloved daughter Gertie (Raquel
Castro), who is now about 7. He’s not in public relations anymore. He works
with his dad in the public works department.
Because Ben Affleck is a movie star and looks like
one, you might expect him to start dating eventually, but no. You might expect
that he could find another high-paying PR job, but no. he doesn’t, because then
there wouldn’t be a movie. When a movie isn’t working, we get all logical about
things like this, but when it works, we relax.
Several times a week, Ollie and Gertie go to the local
video store, where she wonders the children section while he makes a quick jolt
through the bamboo curtain to grab an adult film. One night he’s confronted by
Maya, played by Liv Tyler, the clerk who claims she’s taking a survey about the
usage of adult films, and asks Ollie how many times a week he satisfies
himself. She is seriously disturbed by his reply, shocked to find out he has not
made love in seven years and tells him, “We’re gonna make some love.”
And it’s in a scene like this that Kevin Smith shows
why he’s such a good comedy writer. There is a bedrock of truth in the scene,
which is based on embarrassment and shyness and Maya’s disconcerting ability to
say exactly what she’s thinking, and when Ollie tries to explain why he has
remained celibate (except for his relationship with countless adult titles),
she patiently explains about intercourse: “It’s the same thing only you’re
saving the $2 rental fee.”
Inarguable logic, but he objects, finally giving in
and agreeing to a lunch date. And thus, does love reenter Ollie’s life. For Maya
may be bold about intercourse, but she is serious about love, and soon like
Gertie is saying, “Hey, you’re the lady from the video store” at a moment when
it would be much, much better had she not walked into the room.
Liv Tyler is a very particular talent who has
sometimes been misused by directors more in love with her beauty than with her suitability
for their story. Here she is perfectly cast, as the naïve and sincere Maya,
whose confidence is not a conquest technique but an act of generosity, almost
of mercy. It takes a special look for a woman to convince us she wants to sleep
with a man out of the goodness of her heart, but Tyler finds it, and it brings
a sweetness to the relationship.
Ebert said, “Kevin Smith I believe has spent almost as
much time in video stores as Quentin Tarantino, and his study of ancient
cliches is put to good use in the closing act of his movie, which depends on
not one but three off-the-shelf formulas: (1) The choice between the big city
and staying with your family in a small town; (2) the parent who arrives at a
school play just at the moment when the child onstage is in despair because
that parent seems to be missing, and (3) the Slow Clap Syndrome. Smith is a
gifted writer and I believe he knew exactly what he was doing by assembling
these old reliables. I'm not sure he couldn't have done better, but by then we
like the characters so much that we give the school play a pass.”
Besides, without the school play, we wouldn’t get a
chance to see the set made for little Gertie by two of the guys who work with
Bart and Ollie in the public works department (Stephen Root and Mike Starr). Let it be said that the Lyric
Opera’s set for “Madama Butterfly” was only slightly more elaborate.
This is a good movie that I think everyone should
watch. You will love it because it is a movie where Ben Affleck learns a lot from
the people he is surrounded with and how he needs to settle down. Kevin Smith
did a great job with this and you will love it if you’re a Kevin Smith fan, I
promise you.
Sorry for posting this late. I’m not feeling too good,
so that’s the reason why I put this off since I was sleeping a good majority of
the day.
Next week I will be finishing “Ben Affleck Month” with
a movie that was quite a surprise.
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