Now Playing: (2004, Gary Winick) [seen in theatre]
A film that positions itself as a 21st-century, gender-flipping update of BIG doesn't exactly hold much promise, and this film is pretty much what you'd expect it to be. Here TV's Jennifer Garner stars as the grown-up version of Jenna, a put-upon teenager who wishes herself out of middle school and into adulthood, and while Garner is pretty good here the movie around her kind of lets her down. BIG wasn't the final word in growing-up-overnight movies, and admittedly there are other directions this story might have taken here, but director Gary Winick and company take the path of least resistance here, falling back on high-stakes office politics and a romance with Jenna and her childhood friend, Matt (played by Mark Ruffalo). The major difference between this and BIG is that while the 1988 film had its hero grow up overnight and live as an adult in the world he already knew, 13 GOING ON 30 makes Jenna essentially a Rip Van Winkle character, waking up 17 years older in the middle of her adult life, which somehow has been lived surprisingly well considering (the mystical aspect of the film is especially messy and questionable compared to the straightforward-by-comparison BIG). Mainly the time-jumping serves as a technique to allow the 13-year-old Jenna to see where she's and others in her life are heading, and to learn about adult problems and responsibilities and choices from her teenage point of view, to say nothing of providing the filmmakers with an excuse to heap on the kitschy-masquerading-as-nostalgic 80s moments (the "Thriller" dance is simultaneously uncomfortable and carefree). If the film works at all it's mostly because of Ruffalo, whose dryness here counteracts the syrupy surroundings, and embodies his world-weary, skeptical character with surprising energy (think James Caan in ELF for a recent reference point). In the final reel or so, the film disintegrates into the usual Hollywood chick-flick pap about how career women are unhappy and really only want to get married, and the film's final scene costs the film at least half a star for underlining, high-lighting , etc., this idea. But really, did I expect anything more?
Posted by hkoreeda
at 7:09 PM EDT
