After watching Jennifer Garner ham it up as a 13-year-old suddenly thrust into a 30-year-old’s body through repeated viewings of this movie’s trailer, I must admit I wasn’t terribly keen to see 13 Going on 30. Not only did it look like a smorgasbord of overacting, it also appeared to be loaded with every ‘body swapping’, ‘time travel’, ‘be careful what you wish for’ cliché in Hollywood history. Pretty lame stuff.
The surprise here is that all of this is true, yet 13 Going on 30 still manages to entertain and even move its audience – especially its target crowd of 13-year-old girls. While there are few surprises and nothing new here, the movie is likeable and honest (insofar as a fantasy of this sort can be honest), delivering its fair share of laughs capably. Director Gary Winick has taken an uninspired but dependable premise and delivered a solid comedy about appreciating what’s really important in life.
Garner plays the 30-year-old version of Jenna Rink, a young woman who one moment is just turning 13 (the young Jenna is played by Christa B. Allen) and wishing for life to pass fast, and the next is 30, without any recollection of the intervening 17 years. Yes, it’s fish out of water time for Jenna, as she adjusts to having her own apartment, a high-powered magazine editor job, a hunk of a boyfriend, and even breasts. It’s all new, and she’s thrilled by how things have turned out. At least, she’s thrilled at first. But then she begins to learn who she really is – a nasty, overly ambitious manipulator who rejected her true love, Matt Flamhaff (played by Jack Salvatore Jr. as a 13-year-old and Mark Ruffalo as an adult), and is now living a successful-on-the-surface but essentially empty existence. Having sought out Matt for help – she simply awakes one morning thinking she’s 13, when she’s already 30 – Jenna is forced to come to terms with what she’s done with her life – sacrificing her basic decency at age 13 for big-time success. And sacrificing Matt, as well.
Things proceed pretty much as you’d expect; this is pure formula, no doubt about it. But it’s so engaging and ultimately so sweet, that it’s difficult not to get swept up in the fun and sentimentality. And if it’s hard for a grizzled adult male movie-goer, just imagine how successful Winick’s production is for its target audience. At the sneak preview I attended, the movie’s end brought what we rarely see from restrained Canadian audiences – a good-sized smattering of applause from the mostly-young and mostly female crowd.
While the script is straightforward and formulaic, Winick makes the most of it by keeping the story moving at a good clip, and ensuring that a sense of authenticity manages to shine through. There are moments when he lets the camera hold on Jenna for several seconds, unexpectedly enhancing our understanding of and empathy for this character and what she is experiencing. Garner and Ruffalo make an understatedly appealing pair, with Ruffalo’s low-key charm balancing Garner’s hyperness nicely. You can actually imagine these two characters – even after 17 years apart – falling for each other all over again.
13 Going on 30 is a romantic fantasy for a young audience, and for more mature folks who are able to put aside their cynicism for 98-minutes and imagine what they might do if they could turn back the clock and make 30-year-old decisions with the fresh eyes and optimism of a 13-year-old. This isn’t a great film, but it’s good fun and sweet without being cloying.
