Ian’s review published on Letterboxd:
I'm gonna let go of all my apprehensions and fall in love with a movie that not only surprised me immensely, but also hit me hard and resonated with me during a rough time.
13 Going On 30 is the type of movie I'm talking about when I reviewed Isn't It Romantic. It's big and gleeful and just itself - we don't have movies like these anymore.
Jennifer Garner, my method queen, apparently spent time with teenagers to remind herself what it's like to be a teen (thanks for the trivia, Amazon Prime). It fucking paid off. Jen was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING as Jenna whose wonder and pure joy filled almost every minute of this movie. I loved seeing all the grown-up stuff feel stuffy and pretentious through her eyes.
Jennifer just ate this role up, reveled in it and made it her own, and gave the audience such a life-affirming performance, I can't even go on. The rest of the cast - Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Andy Serkis, and Marcia DeBonis (!!!) - also made this movie fun to watch, with no dull moments to stop the momentum!
It's not a perfect comedy, but it was enough to make me feel good and take in something worthwhile. The homecoming montage set to Vienna just floored me like a heavy anvil. I'm not okay these days and this romcom showed me how it feels to just FEEL stuff. It's so, so easy to forget who you are, what you're about, and what you stand for. I need to learn how to never, ever let go of myself.
I'm ashamed that we let go of this genre for awhile there. If it's going back in style, let it be this glorious and generous. We owe ourselves that much.
P.S. Brie Larson was so fucking tall in this movie lmao