So Richard and I live in a 40 year old high-rise condominium building that does not turn on its air conditioning until May 15. Today the temperature appears to have topped out (the day is not yet over) at 93 degrees.
To escape into blessed cool air, we shelled out $8.50 a piece to go see the new Zac Efron movie 17 Again. I, having lost the toss that determined the movie (not that I was plumping for anything else particularly edifying, cultural or intellectual the latest remake of Fast and Furious) was pleasantly surprised.
In a nutshell, a failing advertising medium range executive who had been a star basketball star in high school until he blew an opportunity (Matthew Perry) gets a chance to remake his life by magically going back to High School again - this time as a forty-something adult in his 17 year old body (Zac Efron). The resulting scenes are amusing and somewhat insightful as he in his 17 year old self learns just how little he knows his kids, how little they know him, how much they need him and how much he needs them.
This is overwhelmingly a feel good movie, but it is not a typical teen love flick. Since Zac is not really his own character in the story, he spends some of his time actually ducking the advances of besmitten teenaged women. Or maybe not besmitten....merely confused and hormone infused young women/girls who haven't yet figured out the hierarchy that suppresses sexual and romantic liason in favor of life goals. In on memorable scene, he leaves three of them bickering after they have more or less thrown themselves at him, muttering to himself, 'you know, this is some other Dad's problem.'
Actually, one of the most cheerful things about 17 Again is the way it reveals the sex education and "health education" regime to be as woefully out of touch with its supposed clients and their authentic needs. At one point, a teacher is trying to pass out condoms in a class and Efron as Perry does not take one. "I don't need one because I am not in love and isn't it called 'making love' for a reason," he asked, starting a really refreshing scene about the meaning of sex and import of sexual expression.
Efron's performance was probably the most suprising thing about 17 Again. He really made me feel for him and how he felt seeing his kids struggling with dillemas that, at least initially, he felt powerless to help them overcome. Overall, I would recommend 17 Again, particularly maybe for parents wanting to further some values with their pre-teen or early teenaged children.
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