13 Going on 30 could have been a teen Christmas Carol; its set up is similar. Jenna (Christa Allen), a bratty little 13 year old, ignores her plump friend Matt (Sean Marquette) in order to try and get in with the popular crowd. She wishes she were older and when she wakes up, she’s Jennifer Garner. 30 years old, her life is everything she wished it would be. She’s best friends with the popular girls, she’s living with a star hockey player, and she’s the editor of her favorite teen magazine.

Although she now has everything she ever wanted, all she wants now is the one thing she didn’t want before, her old friend Matt – now Mark Ruffalo. Now, I didn’t need to see a full fledged Christmas Carol, which could have easily been heavy handed in this situation, but 13 Going on 30 evades the issue altogether and instead puts its time and effort into developing an utterly lackluster romance. I like Ruffalo, but his character is just a zombie. When Jenna inevitably returns to her original age, she hasn’t learned that she ought not be a jerk, she simply learns she was being a jerk to the wrong people and changes teams. We’re supposed to applaud when she rudely affronts the shallow popular girl she previously idolized. It’s awful.

A frivolous subplot deals with Jenna saving the magazine she works for from going under – something that was occurring because of problems caused by her previous self. Yes, Jenna grows up a little, but not much. I really don’t see the new future 30-year old Jenna being really all that different from the previous one. The only real difference is that this one has Ruffalo instead of the hockey player. But in a comedy so shallow, I suppose that’s all that matters.

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