Although 17 Again revisits a story that has had many incarnations already, from Big (1988) to 13 Going on 30 (2004), as this movie proves, sometimes its nice to revisit the past.
17 Again begins in the best years of Mike O’Donnell life. He’s the star of the high school basketball team, he’s in love with the girl of his dreams, and everything is pointing to a bright future. However, the next time we see Mike, clearly things have not turned out how he hoped they would: he’s in the middle of a divorce, he has a strained relationship with his kids, and it is very evident that he is unhappy with his life. Through an interesting turn of events, Mike somehow manages to find himself back in his 17 year old body, with the opportunity to do his life over again, and this time do it right.
This is where this film struggles the most. Similar to 13 Going on 30, Mike makes a choice when he is younger that leads to his life becoming what it is now. However, what is an interesting choice is that the “error” he made was choosing love over a possible career in basketball. Now I don’t want to give away the specifics and/or circumstances, but I felt a little offended when he is older and looks back on this moment in his life as a mistake. I am sure that this is not the intention, but instead of feeling as if he and his wife had slowly grown apart, I felt like they were putting too much blame on her younger self. And when we see her later (played by Leslie Mann), I have no idea how he can resent her for where he is. But that’s just me.
Following Mike’s transformation back into his younger self, the film becomes more promising; however, it never reaches its full potential. For starters, the movie never picks the mood it is trying to go for. Often Mike (Zac Efron, who turns in a stronger performance than I expected) has a lot of charming moments, from putting the school bully in his place to his goal to lead his fellow classmates to abstain from sex. Unfortunately, more often than not, these moments were overshadowed by grander attempts to make the movie funny, which often just lead to really awkwardly over-the-top scenes. Plus, this wasn’t helped by the fact that a lot of the characters could have been written much better. Two examples of this are found in Mike’s best friend, Ned (Thomas Lennon), and his daughter, Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg). Yes, Ned’s ridiculous love of all things that scream nerd, as well as his attraction to the school principle lead to some great comedic moments, I am just not sure if it really fits with this film. And with Maggie, I am still undecided if Trachtenberg is to blame for a lot of her weak acting or if the blame should be placed on her horrific character.
And one last thing about the characters, though Efron shows a lot of potential with his acting in this film, he really needs to choose rolls that don’t remind the audience of his High School Musical roots if he doesn’t want to be type cast. Not only does his character revolve around basketball again, but also in the beginning of the film he even takes the time before the game to join in on a group dance with the cheerleaders. I half expected him to break out into song at this point.
17 Again has a lot of potential, however, the moments that work to endear this film to the viewer are often overshadowed by the desperate attempts to get a laugh, all of which are unnecessary.
Final Grade: B-
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