(no subject)

[doyle]

Anchorman isn't on release here yet, so thecount_ha and I rented 13 Going on 30. I was a bit leery of a romantic comedy where the female side of the romance is thirteen, even if she looks like Jennifer Garner. thecount_ha was intrigued by this very same concept. About five minutes in, one thing was clear: this film could bear the coveted title of Most Predictable Movie of All Time.


- Andy Serkis is in the opening credits. He's English, so his character will be either gay or the bad guy. (Gay, it turns out.)
- young-Jenna dances to Thriller. Garner-Jenna will no doubt dance to Thriller at a trendy nightclub and people will initially laugh but will be so wowed by her sense of fun that they all join in and have a jolly-gosh great time. And they will all know the dance even though Thriller was released the year I was born. (On that, isn't 1987 a bit late for Thriller and Rick Springfield obsession?)
- her geeky boy-next-door best friend will grow up hot and be her love interest. The hot guy she loved in high school will turn out to be ugly to illustrate the important moral of the story: good people are beautiful. Bad people are ugly. Don't be shallow in high school: save that shallowness for later in life when you're *sure* the guy's going to turn out hot.
- the bitchy girl in the first scene will be her backstabbing best friend when they grow up.
- montages, montages, montages.
- Garner-Jenna will have a boyfriend. He will get naked and/or try to shag her. Hilarity will ensue.
- Jenna's child-like naivete will make her an instant success at her job, rather than getting her fired or dispatched to a mental health clinic
- just when everything's gone terribly wrong she'll get covered in wishing dust again and find herself right back at thirteen.
- and then we'll get a flash-forward to her new thirty-year-old self married to her perfect guy (with no mention of whether she still has her dream career in this reality)

Mind you, I didn't predict they'd actually be living in a replica of the dreamhouse Matt made for her at 13, because that's a cheese too far.

On the positive side, erm... I assume it's a decent movie if you like Jennifer Garner. And the little girl in the first scene's pretty good, and looks eerily like a 13-year-old JG.

Eh, I liked this movie better when it was called Big.

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

*confuddled* You mean in the film she shoots forward 17 years? I thought she just woke up 30... though now that I come to think of it, her parents would probably have something to say about. I think I thought she woke up in an alternate universe.

Why I waste speculations on films I'll never see, I do not know.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she wakes up having lived the past 17 years but not able to remember them. Now, you'd think that her friends would assume she'd hit her head and was suffering amnesia, but they must assume it's just that quirky Jenna...

[swmbo.livejournal.com]

the important moral of the story: good people are beautiful. Bad people are ugly. Don't be shallow in high school: save that shallowness for later in life when you're *sure* the guy's going to turn out hot.

HEE!

Best moral ever. *loves* And I am right there with ya on every thing else. Heee!

Now, the only thing I will say is that as somebody who IS 30 and 51 weeks and 1 day (like how I worked that in?) - Thriller itself I remember when it was big. However, I can say very firmly that neither I nor anybody I knew, could do that dance - much less would remember it 17 years later! And I think it was before being 13, by the time I was 13...hmm...by 15 I was into alternative, and while I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan....Damn it!! My best friend was, she tells us how she used to have just one glove. Now I need to talk to her!!! And she was one of those kids that did dance from the time she was 4 until she was 18...so she's a good test subject. *rubs hands together*

[cosmic.livejournal.com]

I have possibly disturbing dork!love for that movie. And it actually made me cry, in the scene where she goes back to her parents' house and hides in the closet and hugs her parents and waaaaaaah. Because, yes, I'm a big, old sap.

I was all, 'awww, this movie is actually kind of sweet and nice', but then they had to get *married* and live in that damn house aaaaargh! Because it meant, most likely, that they'd been together since they were *thirteen* and that by itself is kind of a 'wtf?' in my books, but the added, 'wait, they were together since then but only now got married and moved in together in their effing dream house? Ugh.' Possibly reading too much into it.

I actually prefer this version to Big. Because of said sappiness, and the thirteen-year-old girl's cuteness and freaky Jennifer Garnerness.

[spicedrum.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer this version to Big. Because of said sappiness, and the thirteen-year-old girl's cuteness and freaky Jennifer Garnerness.

Ditto. Plus, I hate Tom Hanks. He was cool when Big came out, but since then he's turned into a pretentious ass.

[spicedrum.livejournal.com]

(On that, isn't 1987 a bit late for Thriller and Rick Springfield obsession?)

I am so glad you said this. I was talking about the movie at work after I rented it, and that never even occured to anyone else. She'd have been into Bananarama and the Bangles, and though she didn't quite know it yet, she's the type who'd have New Kids on the Block (gack!) rocking her world in another year.

[nikitangel.livejournal.com]

was a bit leery of a romantic comedy where the female side of the romance is thirteen

That was my issue going in. Especially if she was able to convince the guy that she really was 13. In any case, the idea was just a bit squicky. In practice, it wasn't so bad, but the potential was there!

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

it's totally a guilty pleasure movie for me, too. i try not to think about the ending at all :) i blame everything on the fact that i have a soft spot for mark ruffalo, but to be completely honest i love the whole cheesy thing.

[marginalia.livejournal.com]

-and- the age thing bothered me less with this than with big because in big they obviously have sex. which didn't bother me when i was young and watched it, but now it totally squicks me.

[rozk.livejournal.com]

I just decided that she and the evil best friend had been lovers on and off for most of the intervening years, and the fact she couldn't remember this was one of the reasons why her friend turned on her. It made it so much more interesting a movie, and made the scene where grownup woman with mind of child asks a bunch of early teen girls round to listen to Cyndi Lauper even more disturbing.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

We actually had the same thought - and it would have made for an interesting twist if she'd gone from an age when she didn't remember having any attraction to girls to being grown up and with a female lover. Sadly, that would have been too unpredictable.

The sleepover was a real WTF moment...

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Big since I was 10 - I think the sailed over my head at that age. I'm a bit disturbed now. Before I saw 13 Going on 30 I'd somehow thought that she did have sex with the guy, which was why I was squicked.

[hpchick.livejournal.com]

I thought it would have been better for her crush to have been George Michael instead of Rick Springfield. In 1987, George Michael was extremely popular and hadn't come out yet.