17 Again (2009)

It was unexpectedly awesome. I had a strong suspicion this would be one of those cute-but-cheesy flicks that made for a funny trailer but a disappointing film. I was wrong. Happily. It was cute, funny, had a little bit of edge, and, believe it or not, a lot of smarts.

If you like that sort of thing, of course.

It's the do-over premise, wherein 37 year old Matthew Perry spends 20 years regretting his lost opportunities after marrying his high school sweetheart and, upon finalising his divorce, gets the chance to make amends. Only, turns out, it's not himself he needs to save most of all, but his wayward kids. He meets Bill Murray's brother and gets cast back 17 to figure out where everything went wrong for him.

Zac Efron was really good as the young Matthew Perry. It was cool to see him in something other than a singing-dancing cheese-fest (not that there's anything wrong with that). He proved himself a really funny actor, who played off his co-stars -- so well it looked like he'd been studying old episodes of Friends to up his Perry-esque technique and perfect his comic timing. Whatever the case, he pulled it off. I don't think I've laughed so much in a movie in ages.

And, it was really sad, too. Made me think about love and marriage and happiness and mistakes and what it really means to put your dreams on the shelf for someone else's happiness, or for the sake of love alone. Of course, I think love is a huge sham right now, so to get me in romantic tears was gonna be tough, but this movie succeeded. Maybe it was seeing Zac cry that did me in? Possibly.

At any rate, I loved it.