17 Again: Didn't Make Me Lose What's Left of My Morals

Time transportation. At some point, we've all wished that we could see ahead, or jump back to another time. I love watching movies that allow my mind to toy with this possibility. The road not taken and what we missed as a result. I've wanted to see this movie the moment I heard about it. However, not being a huge Efron fan before this, and wondering if Mathew Perry was even still alive, I have to admit I was pretty curious about how this movie was going to hit me.

For starters, I'd usually avoid a movie that I thought would be too silly or childish. While this movie began that way, it matured itself into realistic adult consciousness when it posed the idea that you may have made the wrong decision when you were at a pivotal moment in time, thus redirecting everything you had planned for yourself. Efron, the 17 year old basketball star leaves in the middle of his game (where a scout watches him) to console and reassure his girlfriend that he will be supportive for their accidental pregnancy. Years down the line, his wife kicks him out of the house and wants a divorce because he constantly reminds her how life is disappointing for him. But then he gets a second chance to visit 17.

Aside from the stupid and drawn-out fight scene with his weirdo friend Ned, the depiction of this scenario was really well-played out. Not only do I respect Efron's performance, but also commend the director's clever ability to pull off a PG-13 movie while still addressing real adult issues and desires. Though obviously unrealistic by nature, the movie is tactful about depicting a scenario that could allows for a wide (and potentially crude) imagination. I found the film protected family moral issues such as: his daughter's choice to remain a virgin, the mom's tasteful and curious attraction to Efron, and even the modest way teenage pregnancy was addressed in the beginning of the movie. Luckily, the movie did not drown me in this utopia of chasity. There was still cussing, sexual allusion, and cougar jokes. This movie did make me laugh out loud, which is (as bad as it sounds) mostly hard to achieve when you're being moral.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars, but only because the beginning was kind of lame and the fight scene dragged on. The rest of it was pretty cute and well done enough to make it appropriate for a wide audience. You should watch this movie. I very much liked it (and I don't claim that so easily).