Review of 13 Going on 30 (2004) by Hugo P — 04 Dec 2011

13 Going on 30 (2004) is a romantic comedy about Jenna RInk, a 13-year-old girl living in the year 1990-ish who wishes to be 30 and wakes up as 30-year-old (played by then-uber-popular Jennifer Garner) in the year 2004-ish.

Throughout the course of the movie, Jennifer Garner's character goes through what you would expect from a typical rom-com protagonist stuck in the plot from Tom Hank's Big. She realizes that, after getting everything she wanted from life as a 13-year-old - including popularity throughout high school, being an it girl, and eventually becoming homecoming queen - she has become a high-powered editor of her favorite magazine and is generally an all-around terrible person. Jenna rekindles her friendship - and romance - with her former best friend Matt (played by a then up-and-coming Mark Ruffalo) and begins to make changes in her life fueled by her juvenile mindset.

As with all romantic comedies, 13 Going on 30 takes us from introductory comedy to something resembling a plot where Jenna's character begins to go through changes and the best friend she alienated so long ago begins to fall in love with her again, at the risk of destroying his own impending wedding. Eventually, there's a reveal, the turn, and just when it looks like she will live unhappily ever after, we get our happy ending.

As a 13-year-old girl living in a 30-year-old's body, Garner sure seems to have a lot of fun in this role and does an excellent job of embodying her 13-year-old self. The first 30 minutes of the film are ripe with cringe-inducing awkward comedy ranging from the middle school years we all wish we could forget to the hijinks of a 13-year-old girl trying to figure out how to live as a 30-year-old. The greatest scene by far is when 30-year-old Jenna gets a party going by getting the DJ to play Michael Jackson's "Thriller" which results in the dancefloor being populated by 30-somethings rediscovering one of the most popular dances of all time and doing the "Thriller" dance.

Looking back on this movie years later, it still manages to get it's moral across relatively successfully, however cliche. There are some genuine laughs involved and more than a few 80s-throwback moments that 30-something audiences will still enjoy. While Garner is clearly having fun, it's Mark Ruffalo's Matt and Andy Serkis (in between mo-cap roles Gollum and King Kong) as Jenna's boss Richard who stand out as the most memorable characters. Judy Greer is in her element as "best friend/bitch" Judy Wyman, a character I think I've seen her play at least three other times in different things.

My biggest problem with 13 Going on 30 is the ending - always the thing that tends to suffer in this sort of film - and leaves a few unanswered questions. The questions don't really beg to be answered, but in a situation like this one can't help but wonder if this character is doomed to live out there life with the knowledge/memory of another life/dimension always with them. It's the same problem I had with the ending of 1988's Big.

13 Going on 30 does a lot of cool little things in terms of continuity in order to get you to believe that the 1990ish world is the predecessor of the 2004ish world. For example, 13-year-old Jenna is seen to have a picture of Madonna. 30-year-old Jenna has that same picture signed by Madonna and a personal note to Jenna. 13-year-old Jenna is reading an article in the magazine she will later be an editor of - the feature of the article is the apartment facilities 30-year-old Jenna lives in.

Interestingly enough, the 1990ish scenes had to be completely reshot because the original young Matt and Jenna did not test well with audiences. Christa Allen, who plays young Jenna, also portrayed young Jennifer Garner in a later fantasy-romantic comedy, 2009's Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

In summary, 13 Going on 30 is an endearing and successful, abeit cliche, romantic comedy and a healthy update to the formula so popularly utilized in 1988's Big.

MyTake: 7/10.