There’s something appealing about body-switch comedies, which date back to 1976’s Freaky Friday and were popularized after 1988’s Big in a slew of films like Vice Versa, Dream a Little Dream, and yes, 18 Again!, in which George Burns became Charlie Schlatter.
20 years later and they’ve shaved off a year: Burr Steers’ 17 Again stars Matthew Perry, who becomes a younger version of himself in Zac Efron – but not the other way around, as is typical in these films. Good thing, too, as it spares us from Perry trying to act like Efron.
Perry plays Mike O’Donnell, a star basketball player in high school who walked out off the court during the big game to be with his girlfriend and future wife Scarlett (Leslie Mann). Seventeen years later and he’s unhappily married to her, with two kids he barely knows, he’s just been passed over for that big promotion at work – he’s played by Matthew Perry, so you know down and out. I bet he wishes he could be 17, again.
Now, screenwriters love coming up with a device for the body switch, you’ll recall that fortune telling machine in Big. Here, Mike is led to a swirling vortex by the side of a bridge by the mysterious school janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray). How interesting.
Next thing you know, he’s Zac Efron, the 17-year-old version of himself. Only best friend Ned (Thomas Lennon), who initially attacks him on sight in a bizarre fight scene, knows the truth.
So Ned enrolls Mike in the local high school, where he gets a chance to be young again, but instead of reveling in his rebirth, he gets a new look at his family: his son Alex (Sterling Knight), tortured by the jocks in the locker room; daughter Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg), about to ditch college to be with the school jock; and his wife still loves Mike – especially this new younger version. Kinky.
The film sounds awful, I know, and it’s nothing more than formula, but the formula works. These films are appealing because we’d all like that chance to be someone else, or to be ourselves twenty years from now or twenty years ago. 17 Again also throws in a bit of a Back to the Future vibe, with Mike’s daughter making eyes at him and the young Mike making eyes at his older wife.
Ultimately though, it’s too goodie-two-shoes, with Mike espousing the virtues of abstinence to his high school class, Ned refusing to let the now under-21 Mike drink alcohol, etc. A little high school realism would have gone a long way. And there’s something a little off when Mike is terrified of his daughter’s relationship and potential intercourse, but he’s more than happy to help hook up his (younger) son with a ditzy cheerleader.
Despite the top billing, Perry is in the film for 10 minutes or so. Instead, Efron is asked to carry the film, and he carries it well; he’s an undeniably charismatic young actor who is slowly coming into his own after the fame (or infamy) brought by the High School Musical pictures.
I have to ask what they were thinking with the casting, though; Efron and Perry may bare the slightest of physical similarities (they are, in fact, both Caucasian) but personality-wise they couldn’t differ more, what with Perry’s sullen, sarcastic attitude and Efron’s teen idol charm.
Efron doesn’t even attempt Perry’s intonation or mannerisms, which is mostly a good thing, but it’s a bit shocking to see Mike realize the errors of his ways and make everything all better with his family, and then wham! He turns back into Matthew Perry at the end. How depressing; I was hoping he’d turn into an older version of Zac Efron this time.
