13 Going On 30 (2004)
Written by Cathy Yuspa & Josh Goldsmith
Directed by Gary Winick
There are movies with trailers that are locked in my mind being films I never got to watch for some reason or another. Being the youngest sibling or sometimes the odd person out, I missed out on movies.
Or maybe I thought the moment I had a chance to view it, I was too cool for it. Let it be known. I will be removing all sense of coolness.
13 Going on 30 was one of those movies for me. I just assumed it would be a female version of Big or other movies where a teenager wishes to be flirty and thirty.
As a person who had worked and has spoken to those close to that age, anyone over the age of 25 is old to them. That stated, 13 Going on 30 isn’t that bad for a story for women. Well, mostly white women.
Jenna is an insecure 13-year-old who is having a party to impress the popular kids at school. Her best friend and neighbor Matt thinks she should be who she is, sprinkles some wishing glitter on a dream house he built for her. During the party, Lucy cons her to going into the closet to play Seven Minutes in Heaven. Distraught by what’s happened, Jenna runs back into the closet, wishing to be 30, and the wishing glitter falls on her.
She finds herself in the future. Thirty years old, helping lead her favorite magazine with her new best friend, Lucy.
Through a series of events, the magazine is on the downfall. Jenna finds Matt to reconnect, realizing she’s in love with him. Matt, however, is already engaged and refuses to call off his wedding.
Here are tips showing us Matt is cooler than shown:
Framed Blue Velvet poster in his apartment
A Taxi Driver poster in his parent’s home in his childhood bedroom
He has a CBGB shirt
He has a Talking Heads shirt
Matt is effortlessly cool. He is the one person in the movie who doesn’t excuse himself for being who he is. What’s great is he never tells Jenna that she isn’t great. He wants her to be herself.
This movie also does a good thing of never making the other women the enemy. In the end, it’s Jenna who has been the bad guy. It’s her 13-year-old self who has to go in and fix it.
It’s okay. Not amazing, but entertaining nonetheless. Be warned, older Jenna does flirt with a minor, but it’s brief. Also, where are all the adults at when Jenna was a slumber party with a bunch of tweens? Never mind. It’s a movie, just go with it.
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