You can call it roleplaying, you can call it switcheroo, you can call it the memory complex, but whatever it is, it's huge. It is becoming its own genre.
Basically, these films all have one thing in common. At least one character ends up having to be something that he/she is "not". This happens either by switching of bodies, glimpsing, tampering of memory, or traveling through time. The presence of drama, comedy or romance is inevitable, making it a hard film to categorize. Still, with so many movies now falling into this set, it may be time to give them a name.
Eh, but enough of my trying to sound smart. 13 Going on 30 is the latest (at least for the next few weeks) addition to this so-called "roleplaying genre". The thing about movies like this though is that you have to be a pretty smooth actor to play a character who, in turn, is basically "playing" someone else.
That's why we have Jennifer Garner who, as of last Friday, basically did the same thing to her career that Tom Hanks did to his with the renowned Big (I know, you're sick of hearing that word by now!) After brandishing bodacious girl power via Daredevil and the TV show Alias, Garner has taken on a more serious role and shown us that she means business.
Jenna Rink is a pretty typical teenager, angry, confused, insecure. (I wish I could tell her that's all going to go away, but I don't want to lie to her.) She wants to be part of the elusive "Six Chicks", she pines for Christopher Grandy, and she has a best friend Matt Flamhaff, an aspiring photographer who takes pictures of her when she's not looking.
On her 13th birthday, things go a little awry at the party and Jenna makes a wish in haste, to be thirty, flirty and thriving.
Next thing you know, Jenna wakes up and whoomp! There it is. She's 30... and it's the future. She has to adapt to a new environment, a job, a boyfriend, big boobs, high heels, tight dresses, and figuring out what she has "done" for the last 17 years. As one might expect, the "perfect" life Jenna has wished for isn't quite as perfect as she imagined.
I was a little surprised at first -- I thought Garner was actually playing her 13-year old self. Christa B. Allen, the girl who actually does, looks a lot like Garner. And she is more than adequate at portraying the confused emotions of a frustrated teenager who just plain wants something to go right.
Mark Ruffalo plays a slimmer, grown-up Matt in the future, who is still taking pictures and profiting from it. As 30-year-old Jenna starts to realize, she has basically neglected Matt all her life, but in this stressful adult life, she realizes that what she really needs is someone who cares about her, not someone who thinks she's "cool". And of all the friends she has in this new life, only Matt can fulfill that need.
This only leads to heat between Jenna and Lucy (Judy Greer) the "leader" of Six Chicks who now works alongside her. Add the fact that Matt is engaged, Jenna's parents are close to giving up on ever seeing her again, and Jenna herself is drawn to 13-year old boys, and it's a recipe for pure disaster (for her, not us!)
Well, Big comparisons will run rampant, and those who have seen Big will almost instinctively contrast the two. It's easy to say yeah, this is different, 'cause she travels through time instead of just becoming big. But the fallout is that Jenna doesn't have to face near as many obstacles as Josh Baskin once did -- people (like her parents) know who she is, she has a place to live, she has a job, she exists. And since it is assumed that this is temporary, you might as well add "no consequences". Her mother doesn't chase her down with a knife. She doesn't cry herself to sleep, whimpering "Mom", in a strange motel room with people shouting in a foreign language outside the door. By comparison, Jenna's adaptation is as easy as pie.
Her biggest obstacle ends up being people's expectations. And there's no easy way to say it, but expectations are boring problems. Her second biggest problem, and the one that provides the biggest "hook", is that she doesn't know what she has done for the last 17 years to get where she is today. What this also means, however, is that everything she "learns" along the way is the result of finding out about "crimes" she (as far as she knows) hasn't even committed. You can't exactly learn from mistakes that you didn't make. But I suppose the principle is that you can learn from other people's mistakes, with "the other person" in this case being the Jenna that would have transpired had she not been given this glimpse. But still, it never feels right to me when a wrongly accused person has to say "I did it" to avoid confrontations that they know are unwinnable.
As bad as I make it sound with those last two paragraphs, I still really enjoyed this movie for emotional reasons. Garner and Ruffalo take it all away when they're together, both having their own problems, but when they're together, nothing else matters. At a certain point, you completely forget that she's a 13-year old 'cause you want them to get together that badly. I could hear crying all over.
The subplot involving Matt's prior engagement is superfluous, but the one involving Jenna "re-uniting" with her parents was wonderful. When Jenna can't sleep because of a nasty thunderstorm, she (as a 30-year old) crawls into bed with her parents... and they welcome her. If that ain't sweet, then I don't know what is.
There is also a cute subplot in which Jenna, possessing the aura of 30-year old authority and know-it-allness, enlightens a few teenage girls next door about the true nature of love. (Guess it's a good thing she didn't tell them they haven't been born yet!)
Oh yeah, and there's a whole lotta 80's music.
13 Going On 30 is a bit "all over the place" on the genre map, but I felt an undeniable emotional connection to it. The snob in me knows better, but for the time being, my heart still goes on.
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