pleasedLater in the day, I walked downtown to see 13 Going On 30 at the Tally-Ho. It's a sweet little movie, but I think it might have been more interesting if the movie had ended with Jenna still living as a 13-year-old girl in an adult body. She'd lost the boy she really liked, she didn't have any friends to speak of, her career was in shambles. It's a horror story of sorts. But of course they couldn't leave it at that; they had to send Jenna back to her life as a thirteen-year-old so she could avoid the mistakes she'd made on her way to being thirty and avoid damaging her relationship with Matt. Which was cute and all, but I'd really like to know what happened in the interim between Jenna's return to the past and Matt and Jenna's wedding. Did the nicer Jenna still get her dream job as an editor at Poise? Did Matt still get to work in New York as a photographer? We can infer that they're both doing pretty well career-wise, since they can afford that nice little house in the suburbs, but I'd still like to know whether Jenna was able to become a success and remain a decent person.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie. Having been a teenager in the 1980s myself, I liked the soundtrack, which was heavy on 80s pop. I'm curious as to why they used a remake of "What I Like About You" instead of the Romantics original, though. I was also impressed by the obvious care that was taken in casting the young Jenna and in making her look like an authentic 13-year-old girl circa 1987. I think it helped that they cast an actual thirteen-year-old in the part. I thought Jennifer Garner did a good job too. I've not been overly impressed with her acting in the past, but I thought she did a credible job of acting like a thirteen-year-girl in an older woman's body.
Then when I got home, I found my copy of The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 waiting for me. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I did take the time to read the strips from 1950 (about three months of strips) and they're great. And the book itself is gorgeous. I can't wait for the next 24 editions!
