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?

On the surface of it, this movie is nothing special. However, there is something about the direction and the perfect casting that sways you to believe it. There are moments when you are wondering where the story will lead (but you're usually wrong) and the whole focus is on something that touches us all, whether we're from New Jersey, New York, London or Namibia: class, upbringing, love and prejudice, friendship, loyalty, and truth. Toby (Jami Gertz) plays a straightforward, if somewhat naive, go-getter with a big heart, and manages to steer clear of our disbelief, perhaps anchored somewhat by her down-to-earth girl buddies. The romance is touching, the bitter conflict of Sal's (Dylan McDermott) 'correct' relationship is deftly portrayed, and, sorry, but I have to say it, Gertz's beauty is dominant (but hey, I'm just a bloke). Lightweight with a Big Message for us all.

OK, so I sort of wondered at the title before the movie started, i mean, what, i never new Jersey was considered something like the country, but, go figure. It's the classic boy meets girl, girl wrecks boy's car, boy hates girl, girl falls in love with boy, boy falls in love with girl, girl hates boy, girl falls back in love with boy, and they all live happily ever after, well, we would assume. Overall, it was quite entertaining, i mean, it's not a totally original master piece or anything, but quite entertaining. I liked the fact that Toby (Gertz character)in th end, did not change her whole existent just to be someone she's not,was her own person, and had her own beliefs and the fact that she's not just some girl who went around and changed her whole life for a guy, no matter how rich, handsome or successful he was. And McDermott's character was...really complex, but I guess in a way, they made a cute couple, though the ending with water sprinkling down at them and the sloppy kiss, yeah, maybe they should have cut that scene. But overall, not too bad, a fairly entertaining film.