Within their modest, audience-specific ambitions, films like Clerks and Mallrats were gleefuly trashy good fun, and even when director Kevin Smith stretched beyond straight comedy, as in Chasing Amy, he never strayed from his chief strengths—a commitment to exposing the seedier (read: most honest) parts of people, that foul-mouthed irreverence, and a distinct, distinctly un-Hollywood way of looking at the world. Jersey Girl—Smith’s most “adult” film to date—trades those strengths for an admittedly heartfelt but resoundingly toothless foray into family dramedy. Ben Affleck, a longtime Smith collaborator, stars as Ollie Trinke, a Manhattan publicist who must abandon the big city and move back to his hometown in New Jersey when his wife (Jennifer Lopez) dies giving birth to their new daughter, and he loses his job after a very public, embarrassing meltdown.

The film then cuts to seven years later, as Ollie grapples with daughter Gertie (Raquel Castro), his wise-cracking, tough-love dad (George Carlin), and an unfulfilling career filling in potholes. “Seven years later” is an uneasy transition, it turns out: After the first act’s heavily waterworks premise, the audience is primed for a character transformation film, but all that transforming takes place in the seven years that pass without a camera fixed on it. Instead, the conflict of the piece comes from Ollie’s stop-and-start re-entry into the romantic fray and his attempts to get a foothold back in the publicity business.

The love interest comes by way of a snappy grad student named Maya, played by Liv Tyler; the largely flatline Jersey Girl happily skips a beat when the charming and sly Tyler enters the picture.

The film’s other bright spot is the big-eyed Raquel Castro; she does a fine job balancing an old-soul wisdom and sass with the vulnerability required of her age. In short, she acts the pants off of Ben Affleck, but then, so could that aforementioned pothole. There is something so puppy-dog earnest about his straining for dramatic resonance that the gut instinct is to shield one’s eyes.

But if Affleck stumbles, Smith’s script does nothing to catch his fall. Surprisingly, Smith’s truest talent—that of writing—is Jersey Girl’s weakest link. The “skewering” here is feckless and flat, possibly because it’s too soon to lampoon mid-‘90s culture.

Structurally, the film is a drag, and by the third act so completely runs out of steam that Smith resorts to back-to-back montages set to song and a final school performance that still screams of creative desperation. Jersey Girl is obviously a very personal film for Smith and its heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, that heart is about the only element here that doesn’t strain credibility.

Jersey Girl [1 1/2 stars]

Directed Kevin Smith

Starring Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Raquel Castro, Jennifer Lopez

Rated PG-13