13 Going on 30
I wanna be thirty. Thirty and flirty and thriving.
On February 8th, 2024, Mark Ruffalo was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. While many might know him best as portraying the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those of us who grew up or came of age in the 2000s have a special place in our hearts for another one of Ruffalo's roles. My favorite part of the ceremony was when he was joined by Jennifer Garner, and the two recreated Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video dance from one of the most iconic scenes in Gary Winick's 13 Going on 30.
I love celebrating a movie anniversary, especially when that movie has had a massive impact on society. I think most romcoms from the 2000s have had that kind of impact, and it always feels surreal looking back and realizing how much time has passed since the film came out, even though it feels like I was seeing it in theaters just yesterday. I think a sign a movie has had a lasting impact is if one of the outfits worn by the character has become a regular Halloween costume, like Cher Horowitz's iconic yellow plaid ensemble from Clueless. In this case, Jenna Rink's striped Versace dress went viral on TikTok a few years ago, and even Ariana Grande recreated the look when she was a coach on The Voice season 21.
Sometimes, I still feel like I'm 13, so it's hard to fathom that 13 Going on 30 is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The movie brought Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner together, sparking a lifelong friendship, and reminded us that razzles are a great candy. But 13 Going on 30 goes deeper than good 80s music, designer dresses, and candy. The movie gives us introspection on how we neglect those who care about us and take our loved ones for granted in pursuit of fitting in and getting what we think we want. For that, I knew I had to cover 13 Going on 30 for Movie Mondays.
Jenna & Matty
If there's a formula for creating the perfect rom-com couple, then 13 Going on 30 screenwriters Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith know it. Movies like Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, and even the recent Anyone But You all utilize the enemies-to-lover trope, but 13 Going on 30 reminds us there's really nothing like best friends to lovers, or more specifically, best friends to strangers to friends again then back to best friends who become lovers and get married. It's less confusing when you watch the whole movie!
From the start of the film, we know Matty is a true friend, and it's heartbreaking to see how Jenna takes him for granted. While Jenna is desperate for the Six Chicks (the cool girls at school) to come to her birthday party and validate her, Matty already accepts her for who she is. Isn't it funny how often in society, we are trying to win other people's approval so they think we're good enough when there are already people who like us for who we are?
“Jenna, I always loved you,”-Matty, 13 Going on 30.
Jenna's pink dream house is something of a MacGuffin in 13 Going on 30 and it is never lost on us that it is Matty who gives it to her. Matty knows Jenna best so he knows she always wanted a Barbie dreamhouse. For her birthday day, he gifts her a handmade Jenna dreamhouse, with a mini Jenna inside, along with a mini Rick Springfield, a nod to Jenna's love for the 80s singer.
However, the most crucial part of Matty's gift is the wishing dust he sprinkles on the house. It's this wishing dust that makes Jenna's wish that she could be 30 come true, catapulting her 17 years into the future. Throughout the film, everything in Jenna's life always leads back to Matty, which makes sense given that he is the reason Jenna's wish came true. Matty didn't intend for Jenna to wish their friendship away so she could be a cool 30-year-old. However, he selflessly wanted all of her dreams to come true, even if it meant sacrificing their friendship.
It doesn't take long for 30-year-old Jenna to track down Matty in adulthood because even though the two are no longer best friends in this timeline, it's him who she still believes knows her best. It isn't her boyfriend or her best friend or even any of her coworkers whom she goes to in her time of confusion; it's Matty. There's an undeniable bond between the two, and Matty clearly misses and longs for the childhood connection he and Jenna had, which he and his current fiancé Wendy don't. And Jenna can't seem to find the connection she has with Matty in her NYC media clique.
It's Matty she runs to when she needs a photographer so she can rebrand Poise magazine, it's Matty she wants to eat Razzles with during a nighttime walk in the park, and it's Matty she inevitably runs to at the end of the film on his wedding day pleading for him to somehow take her back to her past so they can be best friends again. It's a heartbreaking goodbye when Matty ultimately can't make Jenna's wish come true, except that he can because, in the end, it's Matty's wishing dust that helps Jenna time travel back to 1987 so she can right all her wrongs and inevitably marry Matty when she makes it to 30 in a more authentic way (actually living through it!)
"I Don't Want To Be Original, Matty! I Want To Be Cool!"
Jenna yells this at Matty at her 13th birthday party when she desperately wants to be friends with the Six Chicks, especially their leader Lucy "Tom Tom" Wyman, and wants to win the affection of Chris Grandy. However, being cool and being like the women in the magazines is not all it's cracked up to be, which Jenna would have known had she actually listened to her parents.
When Jenna's wish comes true, she jumps timelines. As a 30-year-old looking back on her life, she learns she was one of the Six Chicks, she went to prom with Chris and was crowned Prom Queen, and unfortunately, she begins to realize she is not a nice person. We know this from the start when Jenna's assistant is terrified to say anything to her, assuming one wrong sentence might set Jenna off. However, we also learn Jenna was sending Poise magazine's ideas to Sparkle magazine so that Sparkle would hire her as their new editor-in-chief.
Jenna has no relationship with her family anymore and is more concerned with her famous hockey player boyfriend and alleged friendship with Madonna. Even the 13-year-old who lives in Jenna's building lets us know she's typically not very friendly when she sees her in the elevator. Jenna's at her happiest in 13 Going on 30 when she's with Matty, especially during the photoshoot for the Poise rebrand, which Lucy ultimately steals and brings to Sparkle magazine, taking the position Jenna was supposed to have.
"Just because you don't look like these girls in poise magazine doesn't mean you're not beautiful in your own way"-Bev Rink (Jenna’s mom), 13 Going on 30.
Jenna's attempt at being cool pretty much goes down in flames, but let that be a lesson in life on why being authentically you and surrounding yourself with people who actually appreciate you is always a better option. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who reminded us that high school is only four years of our lives. Trying to be accepted by the real-life equivalent of the Six Chicks or the real-life Chris Grandy is not a productive use of your time. After all, we learn that, in the end, Chris Grandy is now a taxi driver who didn't take his charming teenage appearance into adulthood with him.
The sad thing is people like Lucy and the person Jenna grew up to be never really stop chasing the approval they needed in high school. They find jobs in places where they can continue their hierarchy, and if anything, they only get meaner as adults. In the end, we don't get an update on Jenna's career, but we know she's much happier with how her life turned out than she was when she was betraying all her coworkers, cheating on her boyfriend, and longing for the happiness she only ever had in her childhood friendship with Matty.
How Music Moves Us Through The Times
One of the trickiest things 13 Going on 30 had to accomplish was smoothly moving us from one decade to nearly two decades later, while reminding us that mentally this character is still in the past. The film's use of music is what makes the transition feel effortless. While we hear early 2000s hits like Liz Phair's "Why Can't I?" most of the music is straight from the 80s whether in the 1987 scenes or the present day ones.
The Go-Go's "Head Over Heels" opens the film and then plays again in 2004 when Jenna is tracking down Matty, which connects Jenna's past to her present day. At the party for Poise, Jenna calls out the DJ for playing bad music and claims that's why no one is dancing and having a good time. The unbearable instrumental techno music is impossible to dance to, I know from experience, and when Jenna requests "Thriller," she gets everyone out on the dance floor to do Michael Jackson's iconic dance. Not only does this call back to a 1987 scene when Jenna is dancing and watching the music video before her party, but it also resonates with everyone else at the party who grew up in the 80s. The song clearly strikes a chord, as it would for anyone watching the film who is a fan of Michael's music.
However, one of the best musical moments comes when Jenna goes home to visit her mother. Billy Joel's "Vienna" plays as she rides the train from Manhattan to New Jersey, revisits her basement, which now feels dull in comparison to when she was 13 throwing her birthday party, and sadly crawls into bed with her parents, wishing she could just go back in time. The lyrics of "Vienna" could have been written for Jenna's character that's how well they apply.
"You're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need," Joel sings as Jenna revisits the closet where she once sat and wished her whole life away in exchange for being thirty, flirty, and thriving. She later apologizes to her mother at breakfast for not coming home for Christmas as she finally sees how much she's missed out on chasing the high of being relevant.
“You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through. When will you realize Vienna waits for you?”-Billy Joel, Vienna.
Then, of course, the film ends on Madonna's "Crazy For You" as Jenna returns to her 13th birthday before it transitions to her and Matty's wedding day. The two of them then settle down in a pink house that shares a striking resemblance to the pink dreamhouse Matty built for Jenna.
Age, Living In The Moment, & Learning To Appreciate
The genius of 13 Going on 30 is that even in her 30-year-old life, Jenna is mentally 13. I actually find Jenna's youthful mentality quite admirable. There are downsides, like not really relating to any of the adults around her, being afraid of her own boyfriend, and, when Lucy encourages her to flirt with a man at the bar, she thinks she's talking about the 13-year-old boy sitting down at a booth. However, Jenna's childlike nature allows her to be more creative than anyone else at Poise. She's able to come up with a clever rebrand because she knows what women and young girls really need to see; real people, not the kind of women that made Jenna feel insecure when she saw them in magazines.
"I know I made a lot of mistakes, but I don't regret making any of them because if I hadn't have made them, I wouldn't have learned how to make things right,"-Bev Rink (Jenna's mom), 13 Going on 30.
Jenna's youth also prevents her from becoming stressed when her boss tells her they have to rebrand. While everyone else sees it as the end of the line, Jenna sees it as an exciting new project. If we could all tap into Jenna's childlike energy, we'd live a life more grounded in excitement than stress over minor inconveniences. However, through the process of rebranding, Jenna also realizes how much she's missed out on because she couldn't just be present. It's okay to dream, and I would even encourage people to do it; it's crucial to your future. But never wish away all the good things in your life because you're constantly chasing what you think is better. Jenna learns this the hard way.
The truth is, not everyone has magic wishing dust where they can unwish their mistakes and go back in time to do things differently. Instead, learn from Jenna so you don't even have to wish you could go back in time and live your whole life again. This is so evidently the moral of 13 Going on 30, even though it's hidden between various scenes of Jenna's glamorous adult lifestyle. You will have your time to be 30, flirty, and thriving, but while you're still an awkward 13-year-old listening to Madonna and Rick Springfield, treasure that time and don't wish it all away.
Such a fun film and loved seeing them reunited at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So many great scenes in this - your last pic reminded me of the Love is a Battlefield moment!