Jersey Girl

Jersey Girl is a great romantic comedy. The tagline calls it a Cinderella Story With Big Hair and that it is, but Jamie Gertz's Tobey gets the man of her dreams without the help of a fairy godmother. Tobey lives in New Jersey and dreams of a better life that doesn't include her dead end job and evenings at the Bendix diner with her girlfriends. She thinks she'll find that better life by picking up a guy at the local Mercedes dealer...see the movie to find out what happens. As the opening credit song states "Jersey Groove, She's got a Jersey Groove"

Here's the odd thing about this quirky little film -- its "happy ending" completely undercuts the happy ending the heroine is looking for.

Toby (Gertz) is a Jersey Girl looking for a GQ kind of guy -- a non-Guido with money, nice clothes and good manners who will take her away from it all. Sal (McDermott) is a Queens Guy who's made it big in Manhattan and is dating Social Register material. Toby wants Sal, Sal wants Society, but in the end Toby and Sal get each other. But what happens in order for this to occur? Sal trashes his well-paying career, is humiliated by his girlfriend, intentionally wrecks the Mercedes that first caught Toby's eye,and probably won't long be hanging on to that nice apartment overlooking Central Park. He rejects what it takes to be Manhattan material in order to be with his Jersey Girl -- he re-embraces his Queens roots.

So how does this make him different than the Guidos Toby has been fleeing in the first place? Are we supposed to believe that they're what she really wanted all along, now that she's ended up with one?

The toughest thing about this for me was the endless cliche about what Jersey Girls are like in the first place. I defy anyone to find a 20-something in, say, Short Hills NJ who would dress, act, talk, think like the stereotypes depicted in the film. It's a movie about Jersey Girls with a kind of Philip Roth-like self-hatred about being from Jersey. Toby isn't smarter or more stylish than her friends -- she just wants someone with money. That is supposed to ennoble her? In the end, she doesn't get the guy with the money anyway -- perhaps as fitting punishment for her greediness?

If so, then who's the heroine of this movie, anyway?

Dylan Mcdermott fans must see this movie. The characters are not terribly complex or dynamic, but who cares....ITS A CHICK FLICK! Toby and Sal are sweet and romantic and if your a lover of girl movies, this one is a must see. Warm hearted and makes for a great stay at home movie night.

I can't think or a more trite plot than this film. Nothing but cliches and stereotypes in the oldest poor girl meets arogant boy story. Yet, this was something that was touching, sensitive and if I dare say, transcendent.

Jami Gertz portrayal of Toby was perfection. The rest of the casting was also perfectly on target. Shucks, even the pre-schooler who told Toby that the "boys were being nuts" was terrific.

I suppose direction had much to do with the effectiveness of this film. Each character only existed in the context of their relationships with other characters. They were individuals, but they were never more than who they were in the film.

This was a rare and beautiful piece of work.

I saw this movie a few years ago and I loved it , and it gave me all these butterflies.I saw it again today and it still has the same effect on me, as a matter of fact I felt it more and more, and yes it still DOES give me butterflies,just watching it. It didn't differ, I thought it would be like everything else in life, you remember it better than it really was, but it was just as good.Basically it's a love story about 2 different people who aren't really as different as they think , a Jersy girl who always dreams of the city and moving up and a city boy who was once from the Bronx and did move up and would do anything to never go back. It's romantic, sweet, funny, and heartfelt. I think it's most girls fairy tale in real life setting. It'll either make you feel good or it'll make you want to cry, but either way it's great Friday night movie.