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The Main Characters
--Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) is a young girl who is celebrating her 13th birthday. When things don’t go quite as well as she’d like, she wishes she was 30, then next thing she knows, she is.
--Matt Flamhaff (Mark Ruffalo) was Jenna’s childhood friend. When Jenna searches for him as a 30 year old, she finds out how things have changed in the 17 years she missed while being transported to 30.
--Lucy (Judy Greer) was one of the cliquey 13-year old kids Jenna always wanted to hang out with. She later would be Jenna’s assistant as a 30 year old.
The Setting
New York City and surrounding suburbs.
The Movie
Jenna Rink is a young 12 year old who wants nothing more than to become part of the “Six Chicks,” an elite crew of girls who run the social aspect of her school. She somehow manages to get them to come to her 13th birthday party along with some cute guys in exchange for doing a paper of theirs. Jenna is really excited at the Six Chicks showing up at her party that she turns her back on her best friend, a rather pudgy photograph taking boy named Matt. When Matt realizes that Jenna’s been taken advantage of by the Six Chicks and tells her she gets quite upset and wishes she was 30. She keeps wishing and magically, wishing dust that was placed on the present Matt gave Jenna mere minutes before starts falling on her. The next thing she knows she is 30 years old and the main editor of a magazine she read as a youngster.
Since she wakes up again and is still in the 13 year old mentality she embarks on a search for her best friend, Matt. She finds that Matt lives in the city as well but she gets depressed quickly when she finds out he is engaged to be married. She also finds that things are a lot different than she’d thought they’d be. She finds things out about the life she lead up to that point that are completely awful in her opinion. She fools around with her assistants (who was the former leader of the Six Chicks) husband, she was mean and evil to other people and she hadn’t even kept in touch with Matt since her 13th birthday party debacle. She tries to right all the previous wrongs she’s made but Lucy backstabs her and makes Jenna realize the mistake she made 17 years ago by wanting to become a Six Chick and shutting Matt out of her life. She wishes she could go back to being 13 again. Of course, I’m sure you can now guess the end of this movie, but I won’t say because I’m just that type of person.
My Review
All comparisons to Big aside, this movie wasn’t too bad. I didn’t really like it while watching it but looking back on it, it grew on me. It was a cutesy type movie that does borrow from Big in theme only. Big was a teenage person transported to a 30 year old body, but in 13 Going On 30, everyone is older and not just the main character. It just wasn’t for me though. I think it’s targeted more towards the female audience which is alright. All gripes with the story aside, I thought Jennifer Garner did a great job acting as a 13 year old stuck in a 30 year old’s body. It’s definitely a departure from the roles we know her for. Mark Ruffalo I was impressed by too. I haven’t really seen too many of his movies so I don’t know much about him, but he played his role to perfection. Of course, as a LOTR fan, I would be remiss in not mentioning Andy Serkis in his role as Jenna’s slightly gayish magazine editor. Definitely awesome. In all, it’s not a bad movie. There are some laughs (I especially liked the Thriller dance part) and it’s a good movie to sit and enjoy.
Overall Rating
**
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