In the film industry, there's an entire genre of movies operating under the pretense that if the cast is cute enough and the plot is sentimental enough, a film will be immune to criticism. Most romantic comedies these days bank on the commercial success of a \quirky everywoman"" lead, like Sandra Bullock, acting variations of her previously successful characters.
""13 Going on 30"" flips the formula, opting to update a beloved film (""Big"") with indie staples Mark Ruffalo and Gary Winick (""Tadpole"") and starring Jennifer Garner, whose primary experience with ""romantic"" comedy came from ""Dude, Where's My Car?""
A movie revolving around a 13-year-old protagonist is not apt to be very risqu??, but thankfully, ""13 Going on 30"" works, and it is not just for the kids.
Between '80s nostalgia and its cultural revival, there is fodder for those who can't remember the decade of decadence and those who would rather forget it. It is Garner whose uninhibited performance as a teenager captured in the body of a 30-year-old that makes the movie such a joy to watch.
The young Jenna Rink struggles with puberty and a Darwinian middle school atmosphere on the eve of her 13th birthday, torn between running with the popular crowd and remaining loyal to her Talking Heads-loving best friend Matty, who will grow up to be the good-looking photographer Ruffalo.
Garner slips seamlessly into scenes with the slumber party set as Jenna's older incarnation and develops the character through Jenna's genuine affability, her innocence and her aversion to what she has become when all her childhood wishes come true.
Only fearless and star-making could describe Garner's turn in the movie's highlight, a scene in which Jenna leads her coworkers to Michael Jackson's ""Thriller."" Intoxicated with naivet??, her glamorous lifestyle and about a half-dozen pi??a coladas, Jenna's teenage sensibility recognizes the fact to which everyone else has become oblivious-techno music is terrible. Despite the terror of everyone's stares, the infectious fun of the guilty pleasure hit livens the party and with it, kicks off some of the funniest scenes in the movie.
Some complain the movie is a retread of Tom Hanks' own comedic highlight, ""Big."" In fact the movie invites the comparison.
The laughs aren't always there; this film has twinges of morality and lessons learned. But it is sweet and endearing enough at the same time to deserve some of the immunity for charm that inferior comedies would use to compensate for condescension and other idiocy.
