17 Again (film) dir. Burr Steers

17 Again
Directed by Burr Steers
ASIN B001OQCUYI
Running time: 102 minutes
New Line, 2009
Starring: Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann


Genre: Comedy


Viewer's Annotation: Frustrated by his failures in life, thirtysomething Mike gets magically transformed back into his 17-year-old body to redo his senior year of high school and fix his mistakes.


Plot Summary: In high school, Mike had it all. He was a nice guy, star of the basketball team, and dated Scarlett, the prettiest girl in school. When he finds out she is pregnant, he walks away from a college basketball scholarship to marry her. Fast forward another 17 years, and Mike is miserable. He and Scarlett are getting divorced, he's completely disconnected from his two teenage kids, and he's stuck in a job that's going nowhere. Scarlett still has feelings for him, but says he's wasted the past 17 years complaining about how his life turned out and doesn't want to waste the rest of hers.


A magical school janitor magically changes Mike's body back to its 17-year-old state. (Mike stays in the present day and does not go back in time.) With the help of his best friend Ned, a nerd in high school who's now incredibly rich, Mike figures out that he is supposed to re-enroll in high school; here is his fresh chance to fix his mistakes! Pretending that he is Ned's long lost son, he befriends his wife and children and decides that his job is to fix their lives. As a peer, he sees his children much more clearly than he ever did as their father. His son is a favorite target of bullies and lacks the self-confidence to try out for the basketball team, even though he's quite talented. His daughter is dating a low-life and is ready to throw away her entire future on him. Mike also spends time with his wife (in the guise of helping her landscape her backyard) and realizes that he still loves her and has never fully appreciated her.  Mike decides his mission is to change his family's life for the better.


Critical Evaluation
The adult-retransformed-into-teenage-self is a common trope of teen movies. 17 Again doesn't exactly break new artistic ground, but it handles the familiar material well. Matthew Perry has a bit of a thankless role, but is effective at making it clear that, though Mike has made many mistakes with his family along the way, he does deeply love and care about them. Zac Efron, of High School Musical fame, is charming and funny and does a good job carrying the movie. He has a gratuitous dance scene in the beginning of the film that is so much fun you can forgive the filmmakers for including it, and a scene where he humiliates the jock who is bullying his son and taking advantage of his daughter is also funny and satisfying.


The movie has some weird sexual undercurrents. The adult Scarlett is strangely attracted to the teenage Mike; she keeps on commenting on how he looks just like her husband did as a teenager. There are some moments of sexual tension between the two, which are broken with jokes about "cougars" and "MILFs." After he convinces his daughter to leave her loser boyfriend, she decides to turn her romantic affections on him.  The movie treats all of these encounters with a light and comical tone, a la Back to the Future. 


Still, despite these flaws, the movie generally plays well, A subplot involving Ned trying to win the affections of the school principal is a bit over the top, but it will surely appeal to teenage audiences.


About the Director
Burr Steers has appeared in bit parts in several movies, including Pulp Fiction. He has directed episodes for a number of cable dramas, including Big Love, Weeds, and The L Word, but 17 Again is his first feature film. He is working on another film starring Zac Efron, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, scheduled to be released in 2010.


Curriculum Ties
While frothy and fun, this film does not contain enough substance to be used in any school curriculum.


Viewing Interest/Level
The movie is rated PG-13. There's some mild language that would be inappropriate for younger viewers, but shouldn't cause any teens to bat an eye. There are references to sex--Scarlett gets pregnant in high school, condoms are passed out in a health class lecture--but the most explicit thing shown in the film is a kiss.  


Challenge Issues
Since parents tend to understand the MPAA rating system for film, I do not think this would be likely to be challenged. Its PG-13 label is appropriate for its mild language and sexual references. Parents, too, might appreciate the scene where Mike urges his classmates to abstain from sex until they are truly in love, and even better, married.


Selection Criteria
Though I've certainly heard a lot about Zac Efron from the teenage girls in my life, I've never actually seen one of his films! I decided to rent this film to see what a popular teen film looks like these days.