mujer del misterio

This is a fluffy, feel good girl movie; a remake of a fluffy, feel good boy movie. I think I was a fan of “Big” when it came out; but I was 19 and still living at home, Tom Hanks was just becoming the country’s sweetheart. I tried to watch it again a few months ago and was unimpressed. It had gotten tired;“Big” has not stood up to time. I do not think that “13 going on 30” will fair any better over time, but is totally watchable right now.

“13 going on 30” was written for the teen set, written very well, mind you, with enough clever dialogue to amuse 13 year old girls. There are also plenty of jokes that go sailing over the heads of actual 13 year old girls to amuse the 30 to 40 year old aunts or mothers taking the aforementioned teens to the movie. I am usually not a fan of the crap pushed on teen girls these days, the “What a girl wants”, “She’s all that” the upcoming Olsen twins take Manhattan disaster…the new thing I saw a poster for are just embarrassing. This movie was pretty much a shock to me. I enjoyed it, really did.

Jenna is an unhappy 13 year old girl (we all were) she is not popular, and wants to be, she does not command the attention of any 13 year old boys (except, of course the cute, fat next door neighbor kid who would walk through fire for her) and wants to. So the other unhappy 13 year old girls (yes even the cool chicks are unhappy in some way, I said all 13 year old girls are unhappy) pretend to sort of, kind of like her, if she does their homework. She dreams endlessly of being 30 and fantastic. She tells her mother that she wishes she could be just like the women in the pictures of a fashion magazine. Her mom tells her,” Honey, those are not women, they are models”.

At her13th birthday party Jenna finds herself in a closet with a blindfold on waiting for the boy she dreams of to come in for “7 minutes of heaven” an updated version of spin the bottle. Meanwhile outside the closet, her “friends” have picked up their homework and left. Matt, that cute fat kid, who had to run home and get his “Casio” returns. He finds Jenna in the closet blindfolded, she assumes that it is the man of her dreams, Matt assumes she is waiting for him at last. Both are terribly wrong. Hateful things are said to Matt, he leaves, Jenna wishes herself into the future. 30, flirty and thriving…….

Jumping forward 17 years we find Jenna in a fabulous apartment, with tons of clothes, a boyfriend, and her dream job. I must say that the twist to this is that everyone knows who she is, different than other “Big” type movies. They notice a difference, but just assume that she is on some sort of drug, “did you fall into a K hole?” or that she has decided to go “retro” too concerned with their own lives to care which. Her parents are still there for her when she decides to come back, with happy face pancakes and everything. Jenna is the only one who has no idea where she is. She also does not try to explain any of this to a “trusted” friend; she just goes with it and figures it out herself.

Her job now is to figure out why some people are actually afraid of her, why she does not speak to her parents any more, who the naked man in her house is and why her best friend in the whole world, Matt, doesn’t really want to see her. He is still as sweet as ever, but has clearly been hurt and is very much over it. There are not so many of the standard “I have grown up in a hurry” elements to make you groan and enough new ones to be fun. Yeah, we know that in the end Matt saves her tiny little behind, and they live happily ever after. But it is the journey, people. And this one is funny, and touching.
Jennifer Garner passes my likeable actress test with flying colors, and it is a very tough test. The jury is still out with me on Mark Ruffalo, I keep seeing him everywhere, but I am unsure just why. While this movie will not win an award it was very well put together, has some great lines, a super fun 80’s soundtrack and a great cast that works well together and should make little girls proud to be little girls. It should also make them think twice about that dorky neighbor kid who would walk through fire for them, he may grow up to be a great guy. And won’t you feel like an idiot if you didn’t see it before your 10 year high school reunion.