Sunday, August 23, 2009

#3 "17 Again"

Stats: 2009. Starring Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann. PG-13.

Background: This is the move that made me sit up and go, “OK, so I get this Zac Efron thing!” I saw it in the theater with my sister Steph and one of her friends and absolutely loved it. Steph, not so much. She hates “awkward” movies, and she often leaves the room when things get too uncomfortable. She spent a lot of time wincing and gripping my arm! I saw it again with my other sister when she came home from college, and I liked it just as much the second time around. My sisters gave me the dvd for my birthday.

Reactions: Yeah, so I still love this movie! Since I just got it a few days ago, I don’t know if it’s fair to include it in this rewatch experiment, but I did just watch it!

17 Again deals with that tricky moral dilemma also present in Never Been Kissed. The audience and the main character both know that it’s OK for the main character to have feelings for the love interest, but the love interest doesn’t know that it’s OK to have feelings for the main character (in both cases, it’s because of supposed age differences). Fortunately, in normal life, situations like the one presented in 17 Again don’t exist, so we don’t need to debate the moral implications of Scarlett, a 30-something mom, falling for 17-year-old Mark, who is actually her 30-something husband Mike. Confused yet? (Oh, and by the way … Matthew Perry, the adult version of Mike, isn’t aging so well. He just looks, well, old.)

Each time I watch this movie, I'm struck by the abstinence message (in a good way. Apparently the message that I find so heartening infuriated a lot of people--just run a Google search on "17 Again Abstinence" and you'll see what I mean). One scene takes place in sex ed. When the teacher talks about abstinence being the school’s official position but then passes out condoms anyway because of course high school seniors aren’t going to be abstinent, I thought, "Oh, here we go again!" Whatever happened to setting the bar high? But then Mike stands up and makes an impassioned speech, urging students to wait for marriage. He speaks from experience, as his whole life changed when Scarlett became pregnant during their senior year. Mike also talks to a group of teen girls about respecting themselves, although he gives up when it becomes obvious the girls aren’t listening.

In a culture of sexual permissiveness, I was pleasantly surprised to find a movie—especially one marketed to teenagers—that promotes abstinence.

Verdict: Keep (duh!)

1 comment:

  1. loved this!! i saw it at the dollar theatre and totally want to see it again!

    ReplyDelete

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