“You watch Bonanza, at day care?”
“Yeh.”
“When? After snack, after nap?”
“After Loveboat …”

I couldn’t have jumped the gun more when I heard about this movie last year – when Will Smith was nominated for an Oscar for Ali back in 2002 it seemed weird, but in this case it seemed like a no brainer and he was one of the first people I found myself predicting for a nomination. Well, Will is pretty outstanding at times here. But it’s Thandie Newton who blows him and everything else in the movie out of the picture. She’s an actress who consistently surprises me; I don’t know what it is, but I always too quickly forget how amazing she is – from Interview with the Vampire to Beloved to Crash to this, she is so real, so raw, I physically can’t take my eyes off her passion, it’s extraordinary.

Anyway, as to the rest of the movie? Well, it’s Jersey Girl with a boy; which is ironic considering Will Smith’s cameo in Kevin Smith’s infamous Bennifer failure. But I love Jersey Girl. And I have to say that in comparison, I found this one lacking. Towards the end, I genuinely felt like I’d missed something, like, the point where things got so bad Smith’s character couldn’t cope. It all seemed far too easy for him in the end.

Smith is great, his son is great, Newton is even better. But the great parts of this movie just don’t add up to as beautiful a whole as I personally consider Jersey Girl to be, the script just isn’t strong enough, despite how inspiring the story is. Ultimately a disappointment.

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