Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) is a self-conscious New Jersey girl living her 13th
year in a state of 1987 hell. Unpopular, and with a geeky boy for a best friend,
Jenna wishes she were 30 years old, with all adolescent embarrassment behind
her. When her wish magically comes true, Jenna awakens one morning to find a
naked man in her New York apartment, her junior high adversary her best friend
(blandly played by Judy Greer, "What Women Want"), and a high-profile job at the
magazine she loved as a kid. Wide-eyed and confused, Jenna runs to find her old
friend (Mark Ruffalo, "You Can Count on Me"), who has since grown up to be a
struggling photographer, for help. As the two slowly reconnect and try to put
past differences behind them, Jenna learns the horrible person she has grown up
to be. Armed with her untainted, pre-pubescent heart, she tries to change her
ways.
There's no way around it, "13 Going On 30" (IMDb listing) is dreadfully formulaic, featuring
scene after scene of situations that have been covered by a small army of other
films within the last few years, as well as being a complete facsimile of the
Tom Hanks classic, "Big." Worse yet, it traffics in smelly "I Love The 80s" pop
nostalgia that renders the first 15 minutes of the picture unwieldy and forced.
If you look at "13" with one eye closed, there really isn't anything in its
favor. That is, if you don't count Jennifer Garner.
I don't condone the level of clichés readily apparent in "13," nor do I stand idly by
when the film begins to be weighed down by them in the climax. But Jennifer
Garner's lead performance single-handedly rescues the worn out "13," saving it
from teen-girl-cinema doom. Garner is a beaming presence in every frame of the
picture, sprucing up the dreariest of sequences and the most hoary of clichés.
Garner pulls a 180 from her usual roles, being strapped into her tough facade in "Alias" and last
year's winner, "Daredevil," as she melts down to the
eternally excited and curious Jenna. Encumbered with the customary confusion and
acceptance routine the time traveling film hands her, Garner makes the tedious
material find a happy place through her enthusiasm and failure to recognize when
director Gary Winick ("Tadpole") is asking her to look like an ass for a laugh.
Garner makes the comedy pop, the nostalgia bubbly (Razzles never had such a
sweet product placement), and the icky plot seem somewhat tolerable. It's a
great performance.
Garner even survives a dreaded dance sequence, which finds Jenna trying to
revive a sagging party with some "Thriller" moves. This type of scene is usually
a dead end for a comedy, but Winick and Garner pull some mystical "Matrix" moves
and actually find a way to make the moment hilarious. Getting stiff Mark Ruffalo
out on the floor is one key to laughter, but having Gollum himself, Andy Serkis
(in a supporting role as Jenna's magazine editor) burn the floor with some
moonwalking is icing on the cake. Indicative of the entire movie, the
centerpiece "Thriller" sequence manages to narrowly avoid embarrassment to
become something that enlivens the film even more.
"13 Going On 30" does have some insignificant, but nagging, gaps in logic (why
would Jenna act scared of her cell phone, but work a 2004 cordless with ease?),
a completely pointless "evil" character (there's enough drama in the situation
alone to fill an entire movie), and doesn't have the greatest sense of cutting
edge soundtrack selections (if you're not sick of Liz Phair's "Why Can't I" by
now, you will be). But "13" is relentlessly sweet, beautifully acted, and is
warmly aware of the passionate pre-teen spirit. If you don't dig too deeply into
the proceedings, there's a terrific little film in there amidst all the
hackneyed tripe.
Filmfodder Grade: B+
