13 GOING ON 30 (2004) *** The all-time body switch flick champ, but it's way more than that. Jennifer Garner's a typical socially-compromised 13 year old who wishes that she could be "thirty, flirty and thriving." So of course the wish comes true. Ok, that sounds like a hopeless enough premise, but they somehow turn it into something good. They do it through the best aspects of the pejorative sense of the adjective Hollywood : schmaltzy, predictable, escapist, silly, and good actors (Garner, Judy Greer and especially Mark Ruffalo). It's even one of those pseudo-MTV movies where they play a song like every couple minutes. Worst of all, in keeping with Jennifer's 13 year old time frame, much of the music is 80s pop.and I like it anyway! I was 17 when the calendar turned to 1980, and it quickly became clear that the year-and those succeeding it unless something drastic and good was done (it wasn't, only drastic and bad)-would be something less than its at least fifteen immediate predecessors. So the film is good, in part, because it assuages 80s shame. Yes, we had parties and good music, too (actually mine were a lot better than those depicted, but I know that most peoples weren't). The 80s pop is well chosen, though it must be noted that when they want to play their big musical card they have to reach back to '77 for Billy Joel's " Vienna " (a perfect pop song, and a perfect selection). The plot is Hollywood , yes, but it's well crafted, and has a couple big points that it makes without getting all didactic and proselytizing. If you're 13 looking forward, there's a lot of great stuff coming but watch out because it can get kind of tricky. If you're somewhat older and frustrated, why not take a look back to see if there's not something that you left behind, something that you can bring forward. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure that someone is bound to say that a film that thinks you can take over the fashion magazine industry by referencing yearbooks has no right to wax philosophical, but everyone does. Everyone should. Everyone has to. You can have it all. That's the only way you can have it.
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