Friday, April 23, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MOVIE REVIEW: Flirty-Something

A teenager becomes 'flirty, 30 and thriving' overnight in the fluffy '13 Going on 30'

Her girlhood dreams fulfilled as an editor at Poise magazine, Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) bones up on publishing basics in "13 Going on 30."

Last year's "Thirteen" depicted the very real anguish of adolescence in harrowing detail.

This year's "13 Going on 30," by contrast, provides a light-hearted -- and sometimes light-headed -- frolic as it explores the ultimate do-over.

We'll save the debate over which movie paints a truer picture of those terrifying teen years for another time.

But if there's one thing "13 Going on 30" knows, it's that reality really sucks.

Just ask Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen). It's 1987 and, on the eve of her inevitably traumatic 13th birthday, Jenna's desperate to become a blip on the collective radar screen of the slick "Six Chicks," her school's too-cool ruling clique.

Alas, only one classmate has eyes for her: the boy next door, Matt (Sean Marquette), who's even geekier than she is.

"I don't want to be original, Matty," she informs him, "I want to be cool."

Just like the glamorous types she reads about, the ones Poise magazine describes as "flirty, 30 and thriving."

Following a birthday party that's even more disastrous than she expected, along with the biggest helping of cinematic wish fulfillment since -- well, since "Big" -- Jenna awakens to discover that she is flirty, 30 and thriving as a big-deal editor at Poise and the live-in girlfriend of a hunky hockey star.

Even better, she looks just like "Alias" star Jennifer Garner, complete with dimpled megawatt smile and genuine cleavage.

It's enough to give any girl the giggles. Until Jenna discovers that she owes her perfectly Poised life to a philosophy composed of equal parts scratching, clawing and back-stabbing.

There's just one thing to do. Jenna needs to talk with Matty -- and fast.

Except that Jenna and Matty (who, luckily, has grown up to look just like Mark Ruffalo) don't talk. They haven't talked in years. They stopped being friends when Jenna started being a Six Chicks bitch who couldn't acknowledge such a smart, sensitive, terminally uncool guy.

Little wonder the 13-year-old Jenna doesn't think her 30-year-old self is very nice. And that realization may just be enough to make sure this particular do-over gets done. And done right.

Anybody who's seen "Big" -- and even anybody who hasn't -- knows what's coming next.

Thus it's no shock that "13 Going on 30" carries very few surprises in its makeup kit.

Screenwriters Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa ("What Women Want") don't just plunder "Big's" plot line, they even borrow one of its central set pieces: the kick-up-your-heels-and-prove-you're-still-a-kid dance. (This time around, Jenna rouses a swanky Poise reception from the dead by leading the crowd in a mass re-enactment of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video.)

If only they had borrowed some of "Big's" insight and smarts while they were at it.

You'd never describe "Big" as edgy. But it plays like "Pulp Fiction" compared to the soft, squishy attitude "13 Going on 30" displays.

The movie doesn't even take advantage of inherent time-tripping jokes and the techno-shock Jenna inevitably would suffer when suddenly confronted by our wild, wired world. Of course, there is that strange unidentified object in her purse that keeps ringing. But Jenna's instant acceptance of -- and adjustment to -- computers, the Internet, e-mail and the like seems suspiciously trauma-free.

Even more frustratingly, "13 Going on 30" studiously tiptoes around its interesting -- and unsettling -- undercurrents. You know, the ones dealing with a sometimes thrilling, sometimes creepy subject of intense interest to 13-year-olds everywhere: sex.

Director Gary Winick managed to address that titillating topic in his 2002 coming-of-age comedy, "Tadpole," which focuses on a 15-year-old boy's romantic obsession with his stepmother.

Of course, "Tadpole" was a no-budget, shot-on-digital independent, so it could afford to take chances -- unlike the mainstream, big-studio "13 Going on 30."

Once you get past its inherent marshmallow fluffiness, however, "13 Going on 30" does provide some genuinely diverting moments.

The movie has lots of fun with its '80s flashbacks, particularly when Jenna invokes The Gospel According to Pat Benatar, quoting "Love Is a Battlefield" with breathless reverence.

And music plays a vital role in "13 Going on 30," as familiar tunes kick in to make up for the lazybones storytelling, supplying emotion whenever the movie can't.

Besides, it's tough to knock a movie as sweet as "13 Going on 30" turns out to be -- especially when it ultimately promotes such homey, old-fashioned virtues as loyalty, kindness, acceptance and love. (Then again, it's my duty as a movie critic to be skeptical and cynical and contrary.)

With Winick timing the action to stopwatch, relay-race rhythms, it's up to the actors to find the heart beneath the movie's comic mechanisms.

And, fortunately, Garner and Ruffalo bring the movie back to earth whenever it threatens to float into thin air like a runaway balloon.

The effortlessly versatile Ruffalo continues to impress, whether he's channeling Brando with maximum intensity ("In the Cut") or playing a dweeby techno-geek ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"). In "13 Going on 30," his subtle, relaxed charm gives his scenes with Garner a palpable glow.

And speaking of Garner, her transition from TV to movie star continues with this ebullient performance. Another actress might have brought out Jenna's deeper fears, but Garner keeps to the sunny side, showing off an exuberant physicality that makes "13 Going on 30" a pleasant enough diversion, if not an unalloyed joy.