13 Going On 30 (known as Suddenly 30 in Australia[2]) is a 2004 romantic comedy film starring Jennifer Garner. It has a similar premise to the films Wish Upon a Star, and Freaky Friday, in which girls' souls were swapped into different bodies, as well as the classic short story, Rip Van Winkle, in which a young person falls asleep and wakes up many years later as an older person. Unlike the film Big, Vice Versa, and 14 Going on 30, in which boys were physically transformed into adult men, in this film a 13-year-old girl appears to skip 17 years of her life, and wakes up as a successful magazine editor in the future. It was produced by Revolution Studios for Columbia Pictures.
Plot
Jenna Rink, a girl celebrating her 13th birthday on May 26, 1987, wishes to be 30 in hopes that it would help her overcome her unpopularity at school. Jenna especially wants to join the "Six Chicks", a school clique led by Lucy "Tom-Tom" Wyman, who takes advantage of Jenna's desire to fit in by manipulating her. Jenna's best friend, Matt Flamhaff, gives her a doll dream house he built for her and a packet of "magic wishing dust" for her birthday, which is sprinkled on the roof of the house.
Tom-Tom dashes Jenna's hopes of joining the Six Chicks by pulling a cruel practical joke on her during a game of "Seven Minutes in Heaven". Jenna, mistakenly thinking Matt was responsible, gets angry with him and barricades herself in the closet where she put the Dream House. She cries and rocks backs and forth, bumping into the wall, wishing to be "Thirty, flirty, and thriving". The wishing dust from the dollhouse sprinkles on her, and seconds later, Jenna awakens as a 30-year-old woman living in a Fifth Avenue apartment, without her friends or family. It is now 2004, but Jenna has no memory of the 17 years that have passed since her 13th birthday.
30-year-old Jenna's new best friend Lucy (no longer nicknamed Tom-Tom) drives her to her work office. Soon, Jenna discovers she works for Poise, her favorite fashion magazine when she was a teenager. Missing her best friend from 1987, Jenna asks her assistant to track down Matt. To her dismay, Jenna learns she and "Matty" have been estranged since high school when Jenna fell in with the in-crowd, and that Matt is now engaged.
This is complicated by the fact that Jenna has become a shadow of her former self. She has lost almost all contact with her parents, and she is having an affair with Tracy from the art department's husband. Not only is she generally despised by her co-workers, she is suspected of giving her magazine's ideas to a rival publication, Sparkle. Jenna slowly realizes that the person she has become is neither trustworthy nor likeable, and unknowingly begins to reverse the situation by distancing herself from her new, shallow boyfriend, acting kinder and more honest to her co-workers and friends, and trying to restore her relationship with Matt.
After Jenna overhears Lucy badmouthing her to a co-worker, she sadly realizes that what she thought she wanted wasn't important after all. She heads back to her hometown in New Jersey to reunite with her parents and reminisce by looking through school yearbooks and other items from her school days. These inspire her on her return to Manhattan. Over several outings and working together on a magazine project, Jenna becomes friends with Matt again. Although Matt is engaged and Jenna has a boyfriend, they kiss during a nighttime walk. Dazed, Matt realizes he loves Jenna, but cannot change the past.
After arranging a magazine photo shoot with Matt, then making a successful presentation for a planned revamp for Poise, Jenna prepares for the revamp when she gets bad news from the publisher: Poise is shutting down because the work she put into the relaunch ended up in Sparkle. Jenna learns she was responsible for sabotaging Poise from within by sending their material to Sparkle for months. When Lucy learns this, she cons Matt into signing over the photo rights from the relaunch shoot to her. She accepts the position of Sparkle editor-in-chief, using Jenna's work as her own, similar to what she did when the girls were in high school.
When an already-distraught Jenna discovers Matt is getting married that day, she rushes to his house and begs him to call off the wedding. Matt cannot say yes, although he tells Jenna he loves her. From his closet, he pulls the "dream house" he made 17 years before and gives it back to her. Jenna leaves in tears, crying over the dream house and wishing she could return to 1987.
Unbeknownst to Jenna, specks of wishing dust remain on the dream house, and she wishes she was thirteen again. When she opens her eyes, she finds herself back in the closet of the basement at her parents' house, thirteen years old again. Now, she can change her life. 17 years later, Jenna and Matt are married and live in a house which looks like the dollhouse.
Cast
Casting
Garner filmed the picture while on break from filming her TV series Alias. Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank, and Renée Zellweger were originally considered for the part played by Garner.[3] Olivia Mitchell, Diedrich Bader, and Gabrielle Woodard were originally considered for the part played by Allen.[citation needed]
Reception
The film opened on April 23, 2004 with an initial box office take of US$22 million in its first weekend. It went on to face considerable competition from hit teen comedy Mean Girls and subsequently ended with nearly $60 million at the domestic box office. The same picture became one of the five biggest DVD rentals of the year, with over $57 million in rentals alone according to the Internet Movie Database. The film's success on DVD granted it a re-release in 2006 with special packaging. The picture grossed $96.5 million, going on to become one of the year's biggest DVD rentals and sellers.
The film gathered mixed reviews from critics, earning an approval rating of 64% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 155 reviews.[4]
Garner was nominated for MTV movie and Teen Choice awards for her role as Jenna Rink.[5]
References
See also
External links
