Picture yourself at 13 — the facial features youhaven’t quite grown into, the braces, and the suddenrealization that members of the opposite sex are actually quiteinteresting. Now magnify your dorkiness by about five, and you haveJenna Rink, played by Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30,which opened in theaters on Friday.
Jenna is the epitome of awkward with her fluffy ‘80s hair,neon clothing and lanky figure.
The movie starts with Jenna and her best friend Matt preparingfor her 13th birthday party to which she has invited the popularkids from her middle school. Well, we all know what happens whenyou invite the popular crowd to a junior high party —somebody is going to leave crying. In this case, it’s Jenna,who locks herself in her closet wishing to be “30, flirty andthriving.”
Through the help of the magic dust Matt gave for her birthday,she suddenly wakes up as a beautiful 30-year-old living in New Yorkwho is the editor at Poise, the magazine she idolized as apre-teen. When Jenna is shell-shocked by her newfound body(especially her breasts), social status and wardrobe, she looks toMatt for answers.
Matt, played by Mark Ruffalo, has been transformed from thechubby best friend to the cool indie photographer who hasn’tseen Jenna since they graduated from high school a decade ago.
This movie is basically an updated version of the 1988 hitBig with Tom Hanks with some 1980s nostalgia.
The soundtrack is a great mix of ‘80s songs, both popularand forgotten, that make you remember your childhood. The scenewhere they all dance to Michael Jackson’s”Thriller” is entertaining, but too cheesy to bebelievable.
Garner’s performance as Jenna is often too over the top,making it hard to relate to her. Garner seems to try to tap intothe giddiness and energy of being 13, but she ends up making mefeel as if I were watching a train wreck.
We’ve all seen her as the kick-ass secret agent on”Alias,” and she does that beautifully. I am justafraid she felt that she had to make this movie as physicallydemanding as her “Alias” role. Relax, Jennifer —it’s only a romantic comedy.
The story is sweet and hopeful, but too far-fetched in itsexecution and not-so-surprising ending. There is a moral to themovie that seems innocent and endearing but just not plausible inthe tough-as-nails world Jenna is supposedly living in.
The on-screen chemistry between Garner and Ruffalo isnon-existent, prompting the painfully obvious question: Why wouldthis cool guy fall in love with a girl who has the mindset of a13-year-old? You want them to get together but only becausethat’s the way romantic comedies work, not because you thinkthey are a good for each other.
The movie seems to rely naively on its supporting roles, whichare your garden variety of the gay editor, the backstabbingco-worker, the jock boyfriend and the overweight secretary. Theacting wasn’t bad; I just think the director should havebranched out when designing his characters.
The comedic moments come from Jenna’s confusion in anadult world. She is constantly trying to ward off herboyfriend’s sexual advances and is still trying to figure outhow a cell phone works.
You will laugh at this movie, but the laughs are cheap. There isno clever dialog or subtle humor, which usually makes or breaks aromantic comedy. Everything was completely within the grasp (andintelligence) of the hoards of 13-year-old girls that surroundedme.
13 Going on 30 had the makings of an adorable teencomedy, a la Freaky Friday, but it seemed like the director,Gary Winik, made a wrong turn somewhere.
I am not sure whether it was that he tried to make ateeny-bopper movie too adult friendly or that he tried to make thisadult romantic comedy too teen friendly , but I was not amused.
