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Is it worth $10? Yes
The teenage girls who flock to “17 Again” will be thrilled to see Zac Efron unnecessarily shirtless in the opening scene. And that’s merely the beginning. “17 Again” flaunts Efron’s cuteness more than “Twilight” glamorized Robert Pattinson’s pasty appeal, which is no small feat. But with so much preening for the camera it’d be easy to overlook Efron’s comic timing and congenial personality, both of which are essential to the movie working as well as it does.
Efron is Mike O’Donnell, a high school basketball star who’s about to be offered a college scholarship. Then it happens: His girlfriend Scarlet (Allison Miller) tells him she’s pregnant, and he chooses to skip college, marry the girl, raise kids, etc.
Eighteen years later, Mike (now played by Matthew Perry) is miserable. Scarlet (Leslie Mann) is now his wife, and she hates him. The kids (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight) ignore him and he doesn’t get the promotion he deserves at work. So Mike understandably wants a do-over with his life, and in a Hollywood movie, he can get one.
After a mystical janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) grants his wish, Mike is now 17 again, but he doesn’t travel back in time to relive high school. He’s 17 in the present, which means the young-again Mike has to enroll in high school to help his kids, and realize the error of his ways with Scarlet, who wants a divorce.
The premise is a clever spin on “Big,” “13 Going on 30” and other movies of that ilk, and the most important thing these movies have in common is a very charming lead character. If we don’t find it cute that young Mike thinks he should dress like K-Fed, or that he tries to give “fatherly” advice to horny teenage girls who hit on him, then the entire appeal of the movie is lost.
Fortunately, Efron has charisma to spare, and he even makes it believable that young Mike could woo the older Scarlet, even if she’s not interested.
Most of the funny moments in director Burr Steers’ film come courtesy of Mike’s friend Ned (Thomas Lennon), an uber-dork millionaire who acts as young Mike’s father and repeatedly hits on the school principal (Melora Hardin). Lennon’s dry, monotone sarcasm snaps one one-liner after another, and Efron is gracious enough to let him steal the show in most of their scenes together.
“17 Again” gets off to a clunky start, and the story is never original or believable, but that misses the point. This is a cute charmer that leaves you with that “feel-good” feeling that those who pay to see this movie are expecting.
Did you know? Although they have no scenes together, Efron and Perry collaborated on playing Mike. “A lot of the rehearsal process was me reading some of his lines and him reading some of my lines and listening to the way we said certain things,” Perry said. “He was also eager to emulate some of my mannerisms, like he noticed I have a tendency to put my hands in my pockets. So he was always watching and observing.”
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