Director Smith meets mainstream halfway

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By Christian Toto

Four years ago, bad-boy writer-director Kevin Smith of "Clerks" fame changed gears with the sweet dramedy "Jersey Girl." Ben Affleck starred as a publicist forced to raise his young daughter alone when his new bride (Jennifer Lopez) dies. Mr. Smith's loyal flock erupted in horror. Where were Jay and Silent Bob, Mr. Smith's raunchy recurring characters? What, no sharp-tongued slackers? Film critics weren't impressed by Mr. Smith's soft, gooey center, either.

Today, the indie director's career is back on solid, albeit more familiar, ground. His last comedy, "Clerks II," returned the Red Bank, N.J., native to his creative home turf of fast-talking layabouts and ribald set pieces.

This weekend's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" has Mr. Smith directing two of Hollywood's hottest comic actors - Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks - in perhaps his bawdiest tale yet.

The film follows platonic pals (Mr. Rogen and Miss Banks) who decide to shoot an adult movie when they fall too far behind with their bills. If that sounds like the plot of a Judd Apatow comedy, all the better for Mr. Smith's career.

Mr. Smith's films, unapologetically rude but with an old-fashioned heart, parallel in many respects Mr. Apatow's assembly line, including "Knocked Up" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Both directors often traffic in immature but lovable man-children who learn to grow without surrendering their silly sides. However, while the independently minded Mr. Smith has enjoyed a cultlike following to this point, Mr. Apatow's features routinely bring in big bucks - and enjoy far bigger budgets.

Mainstream audiences might not have been receptive to the outrageous premise of "Porno" 14 years ago, when Mr. Smith burst onto the scene with "Clerks." It could be a different story this weekend. Blame a coarsening culture, or Mr. Apatow for rearranging the R-rated comedy scene.

"[Mr. Smith] was doing stuff like that long before Apatow. Now, it's almost like his brand of humor is accepted in the mainstream," says Jason Guerrasio, managing editor of Filmmaker magazine.

"I think his box-office numbers will do a lot better because of the landscape we're in right now," he says.

Mr. Smith clearly was stung by the reaction to "Jersey Girl," which may have been hurt by a backlash against the tabloid fixation on "Bennifer" - Mr. Affleck and Miss Lopez's ill-fated romance. He quickly learned his lesson, Mr. Guerrasio says.

"He woke up one day and said, 'I'm alienating the people who got me here," says Mr. Guerrasio, who interviewed Mr. Smith for a recent profile in his magazine. "He knows what works and keeps going back to it."