'13 Going on 30': Cheerful fantasy floats on magic dust
But grown-ups really aren't the target audience for this film, a cheerful fantasy about an unhappy seventh-grader named Jenna who is transformed, with the help of some magic dust, into her 30-year-old self. It's essentially "Big" with breasts, but with a time-travel twist. Tom Hanks' character magically grew up, but still remained in his childhood world; Jenna has been zapped into her future, with her childhood friends grown up (including Matt, the chubby boy next door, who's turned into Mark Ruffalo) and her parents aging.
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The newly grown-up Jenna is thrilled to find that she has a dream job at Poise magazine, a smartly retro New York apartment, and a vast wardrobe of cute pink outfits. She's less charmed, though, by the dawning realization — with the help of a reluctant Matt — that her grown-up self really isn't very nice, and sets out to turn herself into a better person.
Ho-hum, seen it before — but "13 Going on 30" has a couple of secret weapons, namely the snappy pace set by Winick (whose "Tadpole" was a funny, ultra-low-budget tale of a very different kind of teen fantasy) and the star power of Garner, who has the gawky sweetness here of a small-town prom queen. A gifted physical comedian, she proudly totters about in her stiletto heels — she spends most of the movie seemingly on the verge of falling over — blinking her big eyes at this strange new world. Though initially mystified by new innovations such as cellphones and thongs, she quickly adapts. "Can you tell I'm wearing underwear? 'Cause I totally am," she tells a friend after dressing up for a party, with perfect teen intonation.
It's actually a small problem with the film that you don't quite buy Garner as a 30-year-old — she's so in touch with her inner 13-year-old here, and so young-looking with her athletic figure, perfect skin and innocent smile, she looks barely in her 20s. (Garner is actually 32, which must be a triumph of either good genes or moisturizer.)
But with Ruffalo, whose chocolate-voiced vagueness makes him an enigmatic dreamboat here, she finds a genuine chemistry. You find yourself rooting for the two of them, despite the predictability of the premise. Turns out "13 Going on 30" has just a bit of magic dust of its own.
Moira Macdonald: mmacdonald@seattletimes.com