| 13 Going on 30 | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Gary Winick |
| Produced by | Susan Arnold Donna Arkoff Roth Gina Matthews |
| Written by | Josh Goldsmith Cathy Yuspa Judd Winick |
| Starring | Jennifer Garner Judy Greer Mark Ruffalo Andy Serkis Kathy Baker |
| Music by | Theodore Shapiro |
| Cinematography | Don Burgess |
| Editing by | Susan Littenberg |
| Studio | Revolution Studios |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 23, 2004[1] |
| Running time | 97 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $37,000,000[1] |
| Box office | $96,455,697[1] |
13 Going on 30 (known as Suddenly 30 in Australia[2] and Sugar and Spice in some markets) is a 2004 American romantic comedy fantasy film starring Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. It has a similar premise to the classic short story Rip Van Winkle, in which a young person falls asleep and wakes up many years later as an older person. It also bears some similarity to films like Big and 14 Going on 30, in which boys are physically transformed into adult men, but in those films everyone else remains the same age. The situation of the main character, a person with the personality of a child in an adult's body, is similar to the situation of one of the main characters in many body switching films such as Freaky Friday and Vice Versa. It was produced by Revolution Studios for Columbia Pictures.
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Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen), 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 (Alexandra Kyle), who takes advantage of Jenna's desire to fit in by manipulating her. Jenna's best friend, Matt Flamhaff (Sean Marquette), 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, yells at 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 "30, flirty, and thriving". The wishing dust from the dollhouse sprinkles on her, and seconds later, Jenna awakens as a 30-year-old woman (Jennifer Garner) 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 best friend, Lucy (Judy Greer) (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 (Mark Ruffalo) 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 the husband of a colleague. Not only is she generally hated by her co-workers and anyone else she has worked with, 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 likable, and unknowingly begins to reverse the situation by distancing herself from her new, shallow boyfriend, acting more kindly and honestly towards 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 and catch-up on the 17 years she doen't remember. 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 middle 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 13 again. When she opens her eyes, she finds herself back in the closet of the basement at her parents' house, 13 years old again. She runs to Matt and kisses him. Being now true to herself, 17 years later, Jenna and Matt are married and live in a house which resembles the dollhouse.
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] Christa B. Allen, who portrays 13-year-old Jenna, would later "reprise" her role as a younger version of Jennifer Garner by portraying the teenaged version of Jenny Perotti in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.
The 13 Going on 30 soundtrack was released on April 20, 2004 from Hollywood Records.[4]
The songs "Breathe" by Michelle Branch and "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls were featured in promotional trailers, but were not in the movie or on the soundtrack.
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 (The 30, Flirty, and Thriving Edition) in 2006 with special packaging. The picture grossed $96,455,697, going on to become one of the year's biggest DVD rentals and sellers.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Entertainment Weekly | A-[5] |
| San Francisco Chronicle | (favorable)[6] |
| USA Today | [7] |
| Variety | (positive)[8] |
| The Boston Globe | [9] |
| Los Angeles Times | (positive)[10] |
| Chicago Reader | (positive)[11] |
| LA Weekly | (favorable)[12] |
| The Village Voice | (favorable)[13] |
The film gathered generally positive reviews from critics, earning an approval rating of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 158 reviews.[14]
Garner was nominated for MTV movie and Teen Choice awards for her role as Jenna Rink.[15]
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