17 Again
FREAKY FRIDAY meets It’s A Wonderful Life in 17 Again, an unoriginal but serviceable vehicle for High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron.
Body swap comedies were all the rage in the Eighties but this revisits the theme with enough charm to create its own appeal.
Twenty years ago Mike O’Donnell (Matthew Perry) was the star basketball player at his high school with a promising future stretching ahead of him.
Then his sweetheart discovered she was pregnant and he decided to do the right thing.
Now he’s stuck in a rut at work, heading for divorce from Scarlett (Leslie Mann) and drifting away from his children.
Spilling his heart to billionaire buddy Ned (Thomas Lennon) is the start of a process that finds him magically returned to the body of his 17-year old self, which is where Zac Efron comes in.
Now hunky Mike (Efron) has the chance to relive his teenage years with the benefit of hindsight.
Enrolling at the local high school alongside his own children leaves him torn between acting the responsible parent or enjoying the freedom of being the new kid on the block.
The situation is cleverly exploited for light laughs and the kind of sunny, undemanding entertainment that is easy to consume.
VERDICT 3/5
(Cert 12A; 101mins)
