East Tennessean

Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: The Scene

Efron stars in the new film "17 Again," which is now playing. [Click to enlarge]

I think that whenever someone mentions the name Zac Efron, people's minds immediately go to thoughts of "High School Musical." Mine does, and I will only openly admit to having viewed one of the films in completion.
So when I decided to see Mr. Efron in his latest cinematic endeavor "17 Again," I had prepared myself for a movie similar to his previous roles where he was a big-shot high school kid with little to no problems, therefore little to no drama in the movie. And OK, I was right, but only a little. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, Efron's character is playing basketball, is dancing and is the school hot shot. But that is where the similarities to his previous work ends and my worries for a repeat performance also came to an end.
In the movie, Efron plays the character of Mike O'Donnell, who, in the prime of his high school career in 1989, has his dreams of college and basketball stardom dashed when his girlfriend reveals she's pregnant and Mike makes the decision to choose her over everything else. Seventeen-plus years later, Mike, now played by Matthew Perry, of "Friends," finds himself a little less svelte basketball player and a little more thick-bodied clueless father of two, living with his wealthy nerdy best friend Ned, played by "Reno 911" star Thomas Lennon, and on the verge of a divorce. Unable to connect with his teenage kids and quickly watching his marriage crumble due to his bitterness about his decision years earlier, adult Mike desperately wishes to return to a simpler time when he was 17 and had the whole world in front of him. Here is where the movie quickly becomes a little mixture of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Big" as Mike expresses these desires to the janitor of his old high school as he waits to pick up his kids. Hours later, Mike finds the same janitor about to leap off of a bridge and in the process of trying to save him, falls into the somewhat cliché magical de-aging waters below.
Here is when Matthew Perry makes his exit and Zac Efron once more returns to the screen as Mike exits the waters as his 17-year-old self. The rest of the story basically consists of two main storylines. The first being Efron, as the newly de-aged Mike, deciding to use his new form as a way to relive the glory days of high school while also helping his two children deal with their current issues including bullying and a no-good boyfriend. While cliché, somehow it works.

Continued...

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