Movie Review: 13 going on 30
Learning the hard way that adulthood isn't all glitz and glamour
(Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner in ‘13 going on 30’)
As you may know, if you’re here from my Twitter, I’m watching all the pop culture classic films for the first time, and today’s movie is 13 going on 30. Going into the movie, I will admit I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did, but the more I got into the film, I couldn’t help but simply fall in love with the movie. It has such an incredible charm and an endearing nature to it, and, of course, that’s due to the amazing performances given by Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. Seriously, I want to take a moment and talk about their performances. Jennifer embodies that childish, doe-eyed, immaturity of kids perfectly, and Mark Ruffalo has this attractive underdog charm to him and he plays that role masterfully.
"13 Going on 30" follows a young 13-year-old girl, Jenna Rink, as she navigates adulthood after magically waking up one day as her 30-year-old self. Now on the surface, that sounds very silly, and it is, but the message of the movie is what hits home for me. As the movie progressed, it became abundantly clear that the movie is a learning lesson to kids that being an adult is not all that it seems in the media and how, as a kid, we naively wish to be an adult without knowing fully what being an adult entails. Jenna looks at a magazine and sees a model and wishes she was like her "30, flirty, and thriving." She isn’t able to see or understand what it takes to be that and obtain that and has to learn the hard way. When her wish comes true, she has to grapple with what comes with being an adult and the decisions she made, and the person she became to get there. She learns about her negative reputation at her job, her damaged relationship with her parents, and most importantly, her relationship with Matt, or lack thereof. I know when I was a kid, all I wanted to be was 21, so I could do whatever I wanted, having just turned 20 and beginning my adult life. I can say if I could go back to being a kid, I would cherish that time as much as I could and right some of my wrongs from my past just as Jenna does at the end of the film.
But there is also another message that is to adults, that by becoming an adult you don’t have to lose touch with your inner child and become a hardened version of yourself that your younger self may not even recognize if they could see you. That’s one of Jenna’s main internal conflicts; she can’t comprehend or understand the person she became as an adult and where it all went wrong. It’s only when Matt tells her about the day of her 13th birthday party and how she treated him that she fully understands. Because of this, Jenna learns how to navigate adulthood without having to sacrifice her sense of self and become someone she could never have even imagined. It’s because of her not losing sight of who she is that she’s able to (almost) save Poise magazine and foster her relationships with her parents and, most importantly, Matt. Ultimately, though, Jenna learns more about herself from her (future) self and can be who she is and not what others want her to be. Once she magically returns to her 13-year-old self, in the end, she doesn’t make the same mistakes she made before that had gotten her to that reality she thought she always wanted and is capable of living the life she truly desired. As someone who is still sort of in the middle of adulthood and childhood, the message of bringing your childhood spirit and ambition into adulthood is something I will make a point of doing as I get older.
I genuinely enjoyed this movie, and I’ll be rewatching it over and over. If you have another pop culture classic that you want me to watch and review, definitely let me know. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this review. See you in the next one!