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 Chris' Review: Whee! Sure, the idea has been done before. Kid has a tough childhood, wishes he/she was bigger, older, etc. We all know that Hollywood is out of ideas. But this was great. I haven't had this much fun with a movie in a long time, and this idea hasn't been done this well since Tom Hanks in "Big". Sure, there are some small plot holes. Some leaps of faith on the part of the viewer. While I was watching, I found myself thinking, "How would I deal with this?" If I had made this jump in responsibility, instead of the gradual steps that come with growing up. How would I deal with the little things: Credit card bills, rent checks, remembering to buy my OWN conditioner. Jenna took all that in stride and was more concerned about the people that were in her house. At one point she took a train ride home to visit her parents. After 17 years, do YOUR parents keep the spare key in the same place? Let alone, how did she figure out what train to take? Is the New York to New Jersey train system that easy to figure out? Especially for a panicked 13 year old? Anyway, those problems aside, the film was delightful from beginning to end. Christa B. Allen played a perfect, geeky, awkward, teenager. Jennifer Garner meshed perfectly with Christa's wide eyed naivete. Both actresses put on flawless performances. I've been in love with Jennifer Garner's career for a while now, I'm going to have to seriously start watching for Christa B. Allen's next movies. Maybe it was the abundance of 80's nostalgia that peppered the movie. Maybe it was an 80's girl trying to deal with things like cell phones. Maybe it was the detail that the directors and writers gave it when they had Jenna put together her magazine presentation with posterboard and glue and collages of hand cut pictures with sparkles, while her nemesis had a full motion video presentation with dramatic music. Maybe it was seeing a crowd of people doing the "Thriller" at a party. Whatever it was, it worked. I especially enjoyed the love story in this one. Most movies of this type may have a love interest, but they are always superficial and they end up running back to their parents, this time there was a wonderful sappy love story with it that managed to tug at a few heart strings... Oh! I'm feeling veklempt... please, talk amongst yourselves... topic... Tuesday Movie Night and why you haven't attended... discuss. 13 Going on 30 gets 8 big thumbs up from me! Candy, a little bit of substance but a whole lot of fun. Not to mention I have to get the DVD just so I can keep up with my Jennifer Garner collection.   Jim's Review: It seems as though, every week, I must echo the same lament: Hollywood is out of ideas. It started slowly at first...first there were films based on books. This was inevitable for many reasons. Some were successful, others, not so much. Then, came the films based on old TV series'. These were sometimes fun for kitsch value, but contributed little to the overall cultural landscape. But the latest trend to emerge is by far the most dire of the three: Films based on other films. Ugh. Is our cultural memory so myopic that we NEEDED this film? Have we already forgotten "Big"? Don't even get me started on "The Manchurian Candidate." But, I digress. We're talking about "13 Going On 30." Christa B. Allen begins the film playing Jenna Rink, a slightly awkward, but good-hearted high schooler who wants the same thing Hollywood tells us every teenager wants: Acceptance, popularity, a date with the quarterback. Her best friend is Matty (Sean Marquette), a slightly pudgy kid with a bad haircut and unfortunate taste in music. The film mostly gets the neon-and-geometric-shape-drenched '80's feel right, albeit with a few musical inconsistencies. Jenna throws a birthday party, and hopefully invites the popular "Six Chicks" in the hopes of enhancing her social caste. They show up, but only after Jenna agrees to do the homework of their cold-blooded leader, "Tom Tom" (Alexandra Kyle). Of course, once the homework is secured, they ditch, shoving Jenna in a closet to await "7 Minutes in Heaven" with Johnny Football before slipping out. She is found waiting by Matt, who she angrily rejects out of frustration, and locks herself in the closet. While beating her head against the shelves behind her, she is chants a mantra lifted from the pages of "Poise" magazine, which promises that "thirty and flirty" is where it's at. With the help of a bit of magic dust which rains down on her from a homemade (and exceptionally thoughtful) "Jenna Dream House", painstakingly handcrafted by the shy, bookish Matt, the film dissolves into the future. The 30-year-old version of Jenna (Jennifer Garner) wakes up in a strange apartment with a naked man. Confusion ensues. As the day's events reveal themselves, we discover that Jenna has aged 17 years overnight, with nothing remembered in between. She is now living in New York, and works as an editor at Poise Magazine. Also at Poise is "Tom Tom", who has reverted to "Lucy" (Judy Greer), but has not changed her devious, conniving ways. Desperate for anything familiar, Jenna looks up Matty (Mark Ruffalo) who, while never quite believing her story, nonetheless confides that they didn't really talk much after the "birthday incident", and he's a little unsure he should allow himself to get too close lest he have his heart broken anew. Nonetheless, 13-year-old Jenna in 30-year-old body acclimates (if a bit TOO quickly), and the film progresses speedily along. I just didn't didn't feel the whole ball of wax worked. That's not to say that the cast didn't try. The kids are perfectly cast to match their adult counterparts in look and soul. And the grown up cast all sparkle with personality. Garner is adorable and girlish, infusing her slang with outdated lingo, and fumbling her way through instant adulthood. Ruffalo has the comfortable, slightly-rumpled feel his character demands, and is surprisingly charming. Mark requires a good deal of emotional complexity, and he handles it deftly. We believe him. And Judy Greer as the older but not-much-grown-up Lucy is note-perfect as a backstabbing corporate-climber. But, like chocolate chips on an old, burned sardine cake, they toil in service of a flawed-from-the-start premise. It's just all too easy to dismiss it as rehash. Replace "Magic Dust" with "Coin-op Fortune Teller", "Poise Magazine" with "Toy Company", and "Jennifer Garner" with "Tom Hanks" and it's essentially just "Big" in a dress. A cute, kicky, stylish dress, but the content is the same nonetheless. I kept waiting for the F.A.O. Schwartz piano scene. I'm giving "13 Going On 30" 3 thumbs up. The leads, and their sweet, convincing performances are fun to watch, and even inspire some genuine laughs. But they drag along a film that all but crushes them under its own tired, well-worn treads. BackHome - Info - Reviews - Map - Message Board - Photo Album |
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