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Ollie Trinke ( Ben Affleck) is a powerful media publicist in New York City, who loses his wife ( Jennifer Lopez) in childbirth. To avoid his grief, Trinke buries himself in his work and ignores his new daughter, Gertie; leaving her in the care of his father ( George Carlin). His father finally forces Trinke to live up to his responsibility as a parent. Under the stress of job and fatherhood, Trinke lashes out in front of a room full of reporters. The public outburst costs Trinke his job and he is forced to move in with his father in New Jersey. Trinke is humbled by the experience and finally looks upon his daughter with approval and conviction.
Now blacklisted by all the New York public realtions fims, Trinke has tried unsucessfully for years to get work as a publicist. He finally takes work as a civil servant in the borough where he now lives to get by. Gertie ( Raquel Castro ), now in elementary school, often coaxes her father to rent movies to watch. At the video store, they meet Maya ( Liv Tyler), one of the store's clerks. Maya soon becomes a good friend and part of their lives.
As part of his job in the borough, Trinke finds he has to speak to a group of outraged citizens to win over their approval for a major public works project he proposes that will temporarily close a street in the neighborhood. He is successful and realizes how much he misses the public relations work. He contacts Arthur ( Jason Biggs), his onetime co-worker, who sets up a promising interview.
The real prospect of moving to New York creates tension between Trinke and his daughter, his father and Maya, but Trinke is absolutely resolved to regain his old status. However, while waiting to be interviewed, Trinke has a chance encounter with Will SmithFor the geologist who invented fossil correlation, see William Smith. Willard Christopher Smith, Jr. born September 25, 1968) is an American actor and rapper. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second of four children. Partial biography Will S (playing himself), who Trinke had trashed at his public outbust years before. Smith has no idea who Trinke is but their conversation about work and children makes Trinke decide to sacrifice the former for the latter.
The critics were generally unimpressed with the film and seemed incensed that "maverick" director Kevin Smith had gone " mainstreamMainstream is a term most often applied in the arts—i. music, literature, and performance—to something that is not out of the ordinary or unusual; something that is familiar to the masses; something that belongs to an identifiable genre, such as detective." The film was not a commercial success at the box office either.