n the eve of her 13th birthday, Jenna Rink (Garner) is confronted with the toughest decision of her young life: stick with her lifelong best friend Matt (Ruffalo), or abandon teen awkwardness and buddy up with her junior high's decidedly more adult (if not altogether mature) popular kids. When she's humiliated at her birthday party, she makes a desperate wish (aided by a bit of wishing dust) to immediately grow up, bypass adolescence and be transformed into a fabulous and successful 30-year-old. Much to her surprise, the wish comes true.
Catapulted into the body of her adult self, Jenna is at first typically confounded, having leapt from a world of Rick Springfield and Barbie Dream Houses into one populated by cell phones, day jobs and pesky, half-naked boyfriends. Soon, however, she adapts herself to this new universe, aided by Matt, who is understandably confused when she initiates contact after an almost 17-year absence.
As Jenna and Matt begin to re-establish those tenuous bonds of friendship that were destroyed long ago, Jenna discovers that adulthood isn't all it's cracked up to be, and sets off to make things right in the universe of compromises and bad decisions that were made between her fledgling days of adulthood and now.
You'll need to brush your teeth well after
Acknowledging that Big was the obvious template for this tale of overnight adulthood, 13 Going on 30 is a cute and frequently entertaining film. Garner, who has changed chameleon-like more times than audiences can remember on TV's Alias, nails the role of Movie Star perfectly, and takes her place as next in line for the throne of Julia Roberts. While that speaks volumes about her charisma, which is damn near undeniable, it reveals more than she's probably comfortable with about her talent; she has two essential expressions down better than even Roberts did at this early stage in her career—an adorable, sympathy-evoking wounded look and an even more adorable, million-dollar smile—but she has yet to prove her mettle as an actress with dimension enough to establish a proper film career.
Thankfully, producers Donna Arkoff Roth, Susan Arnold and Gina Matthews (who collectively have released America's Sweethearts, Grosse Point Blank and What Women Want, among others) knew well enough to build a dynamic supporting cast to assist Garner in her first starring vehicle, and enlisted the incomparable talents of Mark Ruffalo to offset the balance of the film's schmaltzier elements. Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, You Can Count on Me) is just the type of guy who would have been a forgotten high-school pal, an unpopular sidekick cast aside in the dubious name of coolness, and the actor gives Matt a depth the rest of the movie just can't match; still, it's fun to watch the other supporting players try.
Serkis finds lots of laughs in his first post-Gollum turn as Jenna's boss Richard, but he gives such a grandiose performance that one can't help but wonder if he has yet shaken the shackles of the CGI character. That having been said, Serkis' expressiveness adds enormously to the comic tone of the picture, giving Jenna's adult world an exaggerated edge that only a 13-year-old would perceive, and will no doubt elicit a boatload of chuckles from the Clearasil set. Meanwhile, Judy Greer (The Wedding Planner) falls far too easily into the role of Lucy, the bitchy best pal who's not above cutting corners to keep ahead of her competition, and provides a case study for teen girls to avoid as they negotiate the pitfalls of adolescent popularity.
The film's bow-tied ending lends a feeling of genuine rather than contrived satisfaction, but one wonders how today's savvy adolescents will regard a storytelling formula that's older than they are; will they buy it, or balk at the obviousness of conventions minted when John Hughes was defining the genre? Ultimately, the question remains exactly to whom this film is aimed: the thirtysomethings who remember Rick Springfield, the Go-Gos and acid-washed jeans when they were new in the late '80s, or pre-teens who see all that old-school stuff as a nostalgia trip, and who relish the opportunity to be a kid in an adult's body for a few fun hours. Like Legally Blonde, its nearest cinematic predecessor, it's a divide that 13 Going on 30 dances artfully across, and makes for cute, confectionary entertainment. Just make sure you brush your teeth well after watching it.
