17 AGAIN
US, 2009, 102 minutes, Colour.
Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Perry, Sterling Knight, Michelle Trachtenberg, Hunter Parrish, Melora Hardin.
Directed by Burr Steers.
Apologies to Zac Efron.
While he did a good song and dance turn in Hairspray, we have basically seen him only in the 3 High School Musicals – where he became an icon for teeny and tweeny boppers with little demand for of display of acting talent.
17 Again shows his acting skills. He is surprisingly effective.
The boppers have their first moment when the first words we see on the screen are High School and there is shirtless Zac throwing baskets. The target audience is immediately on side but others were wondering.
We know the plot before we go into to the cinema so it is a matter of finding out how Matthew Perry as the older Michael O'Donnell (really only a cameo performance) would revert to 17 again in the form of Zac Efron. We have seen the beginnings of his marriage to pregnant Scarlet and his loss of the championship game and his rather drab life from then on, marriage failing and two uninterested teenage kids.
The thing is that Efron is quite credible as a thirty seven year old in the body of a 17 year old, listening to his children's problems and helping them to self-esteem, supporting his about to be divorced wife, active in the school, not only at sport where he excelled but, surprisingly in the sex education class where he explains some traditional moral stances. We actually believe that the man in boy's form is sensibly and emotionally acting out, 'if only I knew then what I know now'.
Leslie Mann is credible as Scarlet but a lot of the show is stolen (or almost) by the humorously oddball performance by Thomas Lennon (also seen in a key cameo in I Love You, Man) as a millionaire computer geek, at his geekiest, Michael's best friend but pretending to be his father and being obnoxiously surprising in making a play for the school principal.
Yes, a variation on the Vice Versa story but the screenplay is better than usual and Zac Efron makes it work.
1.Vice-versa stories? Popular? The characters, reversal of roles? Adult perspectives? Children’s perspectives?
2.The average American town? Homes? Homes and gardens? Jobs? School, sport? Real? The musical score? Songs?
3.A Zac Efron vehicle, the background of high school musicals, the basketball opening, his dancing, Efron as seventeen, as thirty-seven and looking seventeen, persuasive as an adult in adolescent form?
4.The 80s high school, basketball, the team, the coach, the nerd and his spoiling the photo? The crowds, the parents, the cheerleaders? The match? Mike as popular? Scarlett and her presence, enigmatic, Mike following her, the pregnancy, his leaving? The effect on his life?
5.Michael as an adult, the two children and their being alienated from him, Scarlett blaming him for the collapse of their marriage? The papers for the divorce? Scarlett and her friend Naomi and her advice? Mike at work, expecting the promotion, not getting it, it being given to young women? His feeling put-upon? His talks with Ned? Staying with him? The return to the school, looking at his photos, the talking with the janitor, seeing the janitor on the bridge, falling into the river?
6.His wish that he could have his time over again, in the whirlpool, his being transformed? The idea ‘if I knew then what I know now…’, his returning home, Ned’s shock, their elaborate laser fight? His plan? Ned as father, Mike as son? Preparing for the interview?
7.Mike as seventeen again, the clothes for the interview, his good behaviour, his adult behaviour with the principal, going shopping, meeting Alex, bound in the toilet, freeing him, talking with him, becoming a friend, coaching him in basketball? Getting self-confidence? Scarlett and her double-take? His being in the class, the discussion about condoms, handing them out, Stan and his macho reaction, Mike’s speech, the girls’ response, Maggie’s reaction? The girls attracted to him? On the basketball team, the coach still present? His throwing the big party, at the house, getting out of control, Ned and his reaction?
8.Stan, his look, the clashes with Mike, the violence, Mike and his talking to him, spinning the ball and his basketball prowess, being bashed? Mike and his resistance? Maggie going out to the parties? Maggie being dumped, Stan and his attitude, his talk with Maggie, his talk with Mike at the party?
9.Scarlett and Naomi, Scarlett and her freedom, the difficulties, going to court, the yard as a dump, Mike’s failure to fix things? Scarlett transforming the yard, landscaped, Mike and his help? Dancing with her? Coming to the party, the kiss? The reaction of the children? His going to court, his reading the letter, its having only the address? The final match, Scarlett present, leaving, his going with her? Love and a future?
10.Alex, the butt of bullying, the cheerleader and his attraction, the party, Mike’s encouragement? Maggie, her infatuation with Stan, her deceptive behaviour, attitude? Her coming to her senses? Talking with Mike?
11.Ned, in himself, as a boy, spoiling the photo, his adult success, computers, copyright? Rich, living in a fantasy world, all the things that he bought, the cluttered house? The swordfight with Mike? Becoming his father, the overt flirting with the principal, her reactions, his continuing to push, turn up, the date, their talking elf-language from The Lord of the Rings, going home, discovering the party, the principal and her whistling for discipline? The bond between the two?
12.The typical adolescents of the 80s, permissive, twenty years later, change of attitudes or not?
13.Mike, his learning, having his life over again, new chances, his bemoaning his life and his regrets, discovering that he should do the right thing? The happy ending?
