Oh To Be 13 Again! (13 Going On 30 (DVD))

Member Name: Great_reviewer07

Product:	13 Going On 30 (DVD)
Date:	07/07/09 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable chick flick

Disadvantages: A bit silly for some tastes

13 Jenna Rink is your typical awkward teenager, she desperately wants to be cool and strives to be one of the 'Six Chicks' the equivalent to 'The Plastics' in Mean Girls. Jenna's best friend Matt is another high school misfit who's desperately in love with an oblivious Jenna. On Jenna's 13th birthday party she is excited at the thought at finally becoming a Six Chick when they turn up with some of the cutest boys in school. They decide to play a game, they blindfold Jenna, put her in the closet and she has to wait for Chris, the hottest guy in school to kiss her. However this is just a trick and after the Six Chicks disappear Jenna is left with Matt. Matt thinks that it's him Jenna's waiting for so he kisses her. When she finds out she kicks Matt out and cries in the wardrobe, she says repeatedly out loud that she wants to be 30, flirty and thriving...

The next morning Jenna (now played by Jennifer Garner) wakes up in a strange apartment with a semi naked man, she soon realises that her wish of being 30 have come true and is now the editor for her all time favourite magazine Poise. Jenna tracks down her old friend Matt who she hasn't spoken to since her 13th birthday party 17 years ago, he's now a professional photographer, engaged but still desperately in love with Jenna...

13 Going On 30 is one of those chick flicks that you can watch over and over again and never tire of, it's not a film that grips you by the throat or makes you think about an overcomplicated plotline. What I love about this film is that it doesn't pretend or try to be something it's not, it's just a light-hearted girly film that you can sit down with and watch with a tub of Ben and Jerry's to cheer yourself up.

On the face of it this film does seem quite original but then given some thought it starts seeming strangely familiar, Freaky Friday is the film that comes to my mind, where Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis swap bodies for a while in order to experience each others stress and turmoil. Having said that, 13 Going On 30 does excel by standing out from the crowd of chick flicks aimed at young girls. This is a bit passed my age group now but when it was released I was just about the right age to enjoy it and I've enjoyed watching it ever since.

I think Jennifer Garner was perfect for this role and I also think she managed to repair some of the damage that she inflicted us through Daredevil and Electra. Throughout the film she maintains a lovely childlike quality about her which enables the viewers to believe her character. Of course this is aided with some of the things that she is made to wear which enhances her 13 year old self! Being such an attractive woman I was surprised at how much she managed to reign in her sex appeal without alienating all her male fans all the while appealing to a much younger and mainly female audience. Not many actresses would be able to pull this off, had someone like Angelina Jolie gotten the part in this it probably would have been an absolute disaster!

The reigning Prince of rom coms (the King being Matthew McConaughey of course) Mark Ruffalo stars in this opposite Jennifer Garner. I don't necessarily think that this was his best pairing, I think the title for that is held by the brilliant Reese Witherspoon in Just Like Heaven. I do however think that him and Jennifer Garner worked really well together on this and they had great onscreen chemistry. Their will they/ wont they relationship made the film really enjoyable to watch. Mark Ruffalo is definitely in his element in romantic comedies and he's also without doubt found his calling in playing the supporting role opposite big actresses (Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon being the most notable). He manages to be charming without coming across as arrogant or cheesy like other actors can sometimes.

There's lots of humour in this film which is what makes it for me, it comes across as the writers really observed the behaviour of your typical 13 year old girl and managed to mimic that using a 30 year old woman, pretty much all the humour comes from this simple premise but what I like about it is that it doesn't go overboard, it doesn't try to make up for the fact that the humour only really comes from one spot by inserting lots of dud jokes which would ruin the movie. There was one scene in particular where Jenna's at a party and all of a sudden decides to request Michael Jackson's thriller and begins doing the dance for everybody to join in, this is what the tone of the movie is like. It's not a film to be taken seriously so if you're someone who's likely to hate this and rip it to shreds then this film isn't for you.

The main problem that I have with this film is that it seems to veer away from the actual storyline, the main premise is the fact that a 13 year old is suddenly 30, I think it should have focused around this a little bit more tentatively because instead it puts a lot of focus around her job as an editor of a magazine, this has nothing to do with what's happened to her.

Overall I think this is a great chick flick and well worth a watch if it sounds like something you'll enjoy, it's a great film to just sit down and relax to as it doesn't require any brainpower whatsoever!

The DVD is available from play.com for £3.99.

The special features include:
Audio commentary from director Gary Winnick
Audio commentary from the film's producers
Deleted scenes
'I Was A Teenage Geek' featurette
'The Making Of A Teen Dream' featurette
'The Making Of A Teen Dream: Another Take' featurette
Photo montage
Blooper reel
'Love Is A Battlefield' music video from Pat Benatar
'Jessie's Girl' music video from Rick Springfield
Theatrical trailer

Summary: A great buy