Jersey Girl (2004) on Netflix

PG-1320041h 42mComedy Drama Romance

Music publicist Ollie Trinke marries Gertrude Steiney, who is expecting their child. Gertrude dies during childbirth, and Ollie raises their daughter Gertie in his father Bart's New Jersey home.

Netflix3.3/5
IMDb6.2/1075,086 votes
Rotten Tomatoes42%

Trailer

Plot summary

Ollie Trinke works as a music publicist in New York. He marries Gertrude Steiney, who becomes pregnant. Gertrude dies in childbirth following an aneurysm and complications. Ollie names the baby Gertie after her mother. He buries himself in work and leaves the newborn with his widowed father Bart, who takes a month off. When Bart goes back to his job to force his son to face his grief and his parental duties, Ollie insults his client Will Smith at a press conference. The outburst costs him his job, and he and Gertie move to Bart's home in New Jersey.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Jersey Girl (2004)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Jersey Girl became the first major theatrical release to include a joke about the September 11 attacks, with Ollie telling Gertie that seeing the musical Cats would be "the second-worst thing to happen to New York City."
Jason Mewes, Smith's regular collaborator who plays Jay in his other films, was written out of Jersey Girl entirely, the only movie in Smith's career without him, after Smith cut ties as a "tough love" push to get Mewes to quit using heroin.
After Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez split up in real life, the church scene showing a marriage was cut and their scenes reshot, reducing Lopez's part over concern about the poor box-office reception of Gigli.
Despite the film earning three Razzie nominations, including Worst Actor for Ben Affleck and Worst Supporting Actress for Jennifer Lopez, young star Raquel Castro won a Young Artist Award for her performance.
In the original draft of the script, action star Bruce Willis, not Will Smith, was written as the celebrity client whose presence both wrecks and later rescues Ollie's career.
George Carlin made his final live-action film appearance in Jersey Girl, and Raquel Castro made her film debut in it, in a cast led by Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler.