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17 AGAIN
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Movie Review: '17 AGAIN'
Zac Efron does a good job of playing a 40-something man back in his 17-year-old body in this pleasant light comedy
Grade: BStars: Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Sterling Knight, Melora Hardin, Matthew Perry
Writer(s): Jason Filardi
Director: Bart Steers
Release Date: Apr. 17th, 2009
Rating: PG-13
Distributor: New Line Cinema
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN, Contributing Writer
Published 4/17/2009
If the title and premise of 17 AGAIN seem vaguely familiar, this means you’re old enough to remember (or have caught on TV or video) 18 AGAIN!, the 1988 comedy that starred Charlie Schlatter as a teen who accidentally swapped bodies with his grandfather, played by George Burns.
In 17 AGAIN!, there’s no body swap, just a straightforward (if magical) de-aging. In a prologue, we see high school basketball star Mike O’Donnell (Zac Efron) walk off the court in the middle of a key game rather than try for a scholarship after his girlfriend Scarlet (Allison Miller) tells him she’s pregnant (actually, we don’t hear what she tells him, but he says the word “baby”).
Flash forward to Mike (now played by Matthew Perry) in midlife crisis. Scarlet (now played by Leslie Mann) wants a divorce, he barely knows what’s going on with his teenaged children Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight) and he’s staying for now with Ned (Thomas Lennon), the nerd he protected in high school who’s grown up to become a super-rich techno lord (though no less nerdy). An encounter with a janitor who may in fact be the guardian angel of Mike’s old high school returns Mike to his 17-year-old form (Ephron again). Once Ned also accepts what’s happened (in an amusing sequence, he rules out all the things it doesn’t seem to be), he steps in as Mike’s father and enrolls him back at the old high school where Maggie and Alex are now students. Mike (calling himself Mark) thinks he’s there to go for the basketball scholarship he once left behind, but the audience knows better.
Thankfully, the screenplay by Jason Filardi doesn’t let Mike lag too far behind us in realizing what’s going on. Mike immediately gravitates to helping picked-on son Alex (in the guise of new best friend “Mark”) and in trying to pry Maggie away from the bullying jock she adores. Most of all, though, Mike pines for wife Scarlet, who is understandably bewildered, flattered and even a little panicked by all this attention from her son’s schoolmate – it’s a great credit to Ephron, Mann, Filardi and director Bart Steers that these sequences are sweet rather than icky.
Don’t try to wrap your head around the math. Maggie is 18 at most, but supposedly 20 years have passed since Mike’s fateful decision, which was supposedly prompted by Maggie’s conception. It’s never stated what year the film is taking place in, so maybe the characters are rounding up. Also, don’t try to rationalize how Zac Ephron’s Mike winds up looking/sounding/behaving like Matthew Perry’s Mike. The coloring is approximately right but the two are otherwise not remotely similar, something of a stumbling block in an otherwise nicely-done finale. On a reverse note, while both give good performances, Mann as the grown-up Scarlet and Melora Hardin as Miek/Mark’s high school principal (who figures in the plot) resemble one another so much that it’s easy to confuse one for the other until the context of the scene indicates who’s who.
These aspects aside, 17 AGAIN is reasonably well-constructed and agreeably funny. At times, it feels like a Disney sitcom, but a smart one. Ephron shows range and conviction as the wise-beyond-his-apparent-years lead and Lennon is a scene stealer Ned, who revels in his adult power and his proud geekiness. The use of distributor New Line’s LORD OF THE RINGS and LucasFilms’ STAR WARS memorabilia is shrewd and amusing and there’s an overall sense of gentle good will that’s consistently pleasing. There are no surprises here, but there are genuine laughs and it’s an overall good time.
Reader Comments
pink from al sez....
gay
5/11/2009 5:34:30 AM
Katie from Colorado Springs sez....
Thanks for your review. While the concept of body-switching into a younger self or younger persona has been done several times ("Freaky Friday" and its incarnations in addition to "18 Again"), I was intrigued and amused enough by the previews to consider giving this outing a look-see. Now, due to your positive review, I certainly will!
4/17/2009 3:48:11 PM
