17 Again, Taken Way Too Seriously

I went to see 17 Again this past weekend. Not because I have an 11-year-old daughter. Not because I am an HSM fan -- never seen it! No, I plunked down my soft-earned money for this flick for one reason: I am a 3?-year-old woman inappropriately lustful for Zac Efron (Ya got me, media, especially you, GQ!).

First, a disclaimer: I really enjoyed this movie and everybody's performances in it (I do like working in this town). Zac Efron did not disappoint. He's charming, makes use of many fingers while "twirling a basketball" (you get it) and looks great with his shirt off (some term that "star power"). At one point, I drooled.

Here's the thing though -- the message of the movie seemed to be (and again, I may just be reading too much into the twirling fingers thing): knocking up your high school sweetheart is A-OK! Especially if you give up that Syracuse scholarship to marry her! F College!

Now, I am all for taking responsibility. I am. Which is why I wish this flick had dealt more directly with this little situation that served as the jumping off point for a PG-13 movie (attended by lots of kids not yet in the double digits). It tries to make up for it with a scene in which Margaret Cho tells us that "abstinence is best but let's get real: just use condoms when you're screwing around with each other." Now, that statement at least gets close to something: if you are going to have sex, be safe. (Question: Why didn't Hunter Parrish also take his shirt off in this flick?)

Unfortunately, this scene would have had a lot more impact if Zac Efron's character not only acknowledged that sex can lead to babies but also that having a kid when you're 18 is hard, hard, hard. (Spoiler alert: he should know, see, 'cuz that's what got him into this crazy mess!) Also, he doesn't want his daughter (again, born when he was 18) to have sex with her high-school sweetheart yet his most powerful argument against it -- HAVING A KID WHEN YOU ARE JUST GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL IS HARD -- I KNOW, I'M REALLY YOUR DAD! -- never comes up. He's just like, "fingers crossed!" Now, of course, the daughter does not have sex (totally unrealistically) and ends up lusting after Mr. Efron (totally realistically, who wouldn't) and it's creepy and weird.

My point here (sorry, I was looking up "image Hunter Parrish" on Google and got off-track) is that this movie pretty much glamorizes teenage parenting. It basically says: Go for it! Have a kid when you're 18. Throw another one in for good measure right after and you'll get a nice house, deck and hammock included, your baby mama apparently won't need to work, your kids will eventually have iPods and get into Georgetown and the person you picked (when you were 17) is actually your soulmate! Don't worry if the condom breaks -- it's cool! It's totally worked out for Bristol, ya'll! (Is it me or is Levi cute?)

The problem with this message is that, according to unreliable online sources and my own anecdotal evidence collected over my 3?-something years: this is crap. It's a great Hollywood story (I really enjoyed this movie, did I say that?) but in reality, teenage parents (mothers, especially) face increased levels of poverty, lower education rates, and higher chances that their daughters will also end up teenage moms and their sons will end up in jail. (I would like to see Zac Efron and Hunter Parrish fight Channing Tatum in a jail flick).

An interesting thing about the movie is that there's a message buried in it -- there's a fun thread of social satire pointing out that kids today obviously live in an overly-sexualized world that glamorizes the act so much, they practically have no choice but to bang each other (one cheerleading sequence took me back, the other disturbed me). But the satire was above the pay grade of the 8 year-old sitting behind me. I'm pretty sure he/she (what's with all the long hair?) saw the movie like this: out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancy leads to falling off a bridge into a magic tornado, inappropriate dancing between a MILF and the star of HSM, buying cool Ray Bans with your rich friend's Black Amex, winning back the girl and, finally, running through a magic tunnel that makes your clothes suddenly fit you even though you just instantly gained 40 pounds.

Now suspension of disbelief is no problem. Seriously, this film is a fun ride. I just wish the flick had explicitly mentioned, just mentioned, that it might not be cool to have a kid when you're 18 so for G-D's sake, use birth control! Matthew Perry admits to Leslie Mann he's been in a bad mood for 20 years. Well, having a kid when you're still one yourself might do that to you! Say it out loud. For the sake of the 8-year-olds.

Comments

[denisew]

If there is nothing wrong with this "movie", why aren't teenagers in the starring roles?

When adults stop taking on teen movie roles, maybe someone will finally see that it is the "adults" sexualizing teens.

[oldandintheway1]

My main question is this...when is Hollywood going to start making movies for ADULTS again??
I like good Comedy as much as anyone ..but honestly....I'm WAY over forty and i'm sick of
movies that are obviously made with a MUCH younger audience in mind. I still have a brain,
I still get the humor so where are the movies that don't insult MY intelligence??

[MellaBlue]

Excellent, Elizabeth. As a high school teacher, I see so many kids throw their futures away to have babies. I have a girl who is a freshman who walked through our doors last fall with a six month old. The problem is that these girls often glamourize their motherhood without seeming to understand the ramifications of what they're taking on. One girl gave birth as a freshman and would bring the baby's sonogram to school to show off . Once the baby came, she would sign her papers with her own name and then a heart and her daughter's name. I didn't know whether to cry or throw up.

[TedCollins]

I know that this is a sad sign of how middle aged I am, but I have no idea at all what you are talking about in reference to "twirling a basketball."

Is this some sort of sexual innuendo?

Could someone younger and hipper be kind enough to explain it to me?

[Blakkwolfe]

Yeah...Even the Urban Dictionary doesn't have this reference yet...Not hip enough, although, I do got my swag on...

[Indubio]

The problem with all too many people is they presume their audience is going to understand non-standard abbreviations, slang, and code. This women is clearly writing to adults so perhaps should should have used more English because like you I had a hard time following what she was talking about. I haven't seen this movie, I don't intend to see it. I have no idea who Zac Efron is and frankly I don't care. The issue she talks about is an important one and it's unfortunate that much of her discussion was incomprehensible.

[DRaymond]

My irony-o-meter was spinning off the chart druing your post, wheter intentional or not.

Our culture is really being cruel to teens. In the one direction we have the abstinence-only sex-ed people makeing them feel guilty about their desires and making a bunch of ineffective pledges, dances, rings, and scare storied. while at the same time the rest of the media is fixated on losing one's virginity. How many 'teen comedies' have centered around the core premise that the most pathetic thing in the universe is to get beyond one or another milestone while still being a virgin while at the same time celebrating unwed teen pregnancy, particularly unwed teen celebrity pregnancy.

The way this quandry gets resolved in the mind of too many teens is the 'oops, we just got carried away and it happened' since actually planning on and preparing for sex brings out all the guilt and fear carefully engendered by the 'abstinence-only' crowd. But any given 'we just got carried away and it happened' (random day of the month) carries about a 5% chance of pregnancy.

[MajorKong]

How many times has this particular movie been made over the last 20 years?

Tom Hanks in Big, Jamie Lee Curtiss in one I can't remember the title of etc....

[Surreal2me]

I took my girls (10 & 8 yrs) to see it yesterday and I was a bit shocked as well. I remember the original 17 Again (this theme of going back has been done several times) I remember the movie was very innocuous. Well shame on me for being naive about what Disney distributes as movies for children these days. I ended up having to have "the talk" which I wasn't ready for. Thanks Disney.

[loucreattie]

Hello......the movie was PG-13.

Your kids are younger than 13. If you are taking them to a PG-13 movie be prepared to answer some questions.

That's your fault. Not Disney's.

[LBCityGirl]

Wow. I'm glad I read this, my 10 year old won't be seeing this now.

[anothervoice2]

This is a great website to check if a movie is appropriate for a 10 yr old:
http://www.kids-in-mind.com/s/17again.htm

[Malkin71]

How old is this Zac Efron?

I am always amazed at the double standard and lack of accountability for women.

What if a 40 year old actor wrote on and on about how hot he was for Miley Cyrus or the equivalent?

"Did you see the picture of her with the microphone about to go in her mouth..." I was drooling. "Or how about the one where it looks like she just ____ her dad. If she'll ___ her dad, she'll definitely want me."

I get that she wrote it in a self deprecating way, but still, the double standard is striking.

And we act SHOCKED when all these female teachers are caught with male students..­..meanwhil­e....

[lady in a hat]

Zac Efron is 21. Miley Cyrus is 16. There is a well-understood line that hasn't been crossed. No reason to protest so much... and geez, where are you going with that "dad" stuff??? At least Banks called that "creepy."

Banks' post was interesting to me in the same way the movie is. Having not been a teenager for 20 years, I have been wondering if it was just me, if teens today really are any more sexually precocious than they've always been. I've been on myspace, facebook and flickr and I see some truly embarrassing behavior...but honestly, the age range is vast. I am curious how technology has changed the reward system for that behavior. For instance, who ARE all those people who do amateur porn videos and put them online? Has there always been that much amateur porn or has the internet enhanced the positive reinforcement they get? I think it has! The more you put it out there, the more attention it will get. And like young kids displaying their sexuality in a world-wide forum (online), the higher the odds that they'll get attention.

Education, understand­ing/availa­bility of birth control and opportunities for young people to do something useful and interesting with their lives are crucial to keeping them from making their life meaningful (pregnant girls get a LOT of attention-I know firsthand) by getting involved in the drama of pregnancy/­parenthood too young.

[dmyron]

What is happening to our youth is something akin to the eroticization experienced by a raped child.Shame on us if we do not reign it in.

[Larry Lipp]

Disney is not going to allow us to teach good morals to our children. They make way too much money selling sex to kids. And, if they make kids having kids a cool thing to do, then that just means more kids for disney to sell their crap too. Disney has become a horrible company since the days of my youth. By the way im 23 and Ms. Banks, I love that you wrote G-d the only way I can write it down on paper.

[KSMullins]

Good insights. As a parent, I'm troubled by Hollywood's version of the world. Certainly having a child at 18 is rough...but that movie wouldn't sell tickets. But the reality of teen pregnancy is all to real in small towns here in Oklahoma and across this country from Pennsylvania to Texas.

Not surprisingly, the Bible Belt seems to suffer disproportionately from teen pregnancy. Apparently abstinence, promise rings, and no sex ed does little to curb the God-given biology we all possess.

There are actually billboards here in Tulsa that claim Birth Control is harmful to your health. The ignorance of such statements is breath taking...but those same people who approve of that message probably really enjoyed 17 Again. Ignorance is bliss until it isn't.

[MissAngela]

Some forms of birth control ARE harmful to your health. I'm just saying because I know this, unfortunately, first hand.
I don't agree with what those folks in Tulsa are trying to do, but it's wrong to say there are no possibly harmful side effects.

[Pseudonym]

So is some OTC cold medicine. Or other medications. But there are no billboards about that because it's up to doctors to tell their patients about and monitor them for such side effects. It's not up to billboards to discourage appropriate use of birth control or other medications discussed and prescribed by doctors.

[BottomLine2008]

Elizabeth, you made the perfect Laura Bush!

:)

[aivilo]

I think you are reading to much into it...SERIO­USLY...its a chick flick...its going to be like that

[Michelle Lamar - Huffpost Blogger]

I'm a mom with a tween daughter and I think Zac is hot. Even if I could almost be his mother. But I'm not going there.

I thought there was a sweet message in the movie, when the father realizes he should appreciate his family. But as the mom of an 11-year-old, I'm right there with you. Say it just for the kids, y'all.

[attilathehoneycom]

If people want to waste money on movies that further destroy the very short time children have to actually be children - that's fine but only if it's for the adult who is getting so turned on by some guy young enough to be her son. But the rating system is so not on the mark - that' it's easy to buy a flick thinking it's ok for your 8 year old when in fact IT IS NOT OK. What to do? Return it and get your money back.

Children today are much smarter than past generations but sadly lacking in any sense of morality. Who is responsible for this? The blase attitude of any parent thinking this movie is ok for a child of any age - is seriously off the mark. Who is responsible for this shift in thinking? The content of retail products, movies, books, etc are driven by the marketplace. Question: Who is driving the content? Where are the parents in this mix? This is a sad indictment of a society that is going in the same direction of Rome. History repeats itself...while everyone looks the other way as long as there is $$$$$$$ to be made.

By the way, I've raised 5 kids and I guarantee you they never were allowed to watch this type trash. I raised 3 good looking guys but my motto is: if you've seen one A--, you've seen them all!

Attila Honey
attilathehoney.com

[TheThoughtCriminal]

Kids are most certainly not smarter today than they were in past generations, and THAT is the problem. True morality comes from the ability to develop values based on one's own independent judgment. Kids today are not taught how to think for themselves. They are simply taught thoughtless notions of obedience and how to regurgitate information, which restricts them from thinking creatively and developing authentic opinions of their own. That is why kids today have no real moral compass.

[Kenji]

Hey, that was really well written, Elizabeth. Maybe you should branch out. (Lord knows, Zack and Miri needed some help around the edges.)

In any case, your observations reminded me of another key point: we want the Matthew Perry/Zac Efron character to discourage his teenaged daughter from bumping uglies with her boyfriend, but the filmmakers stack the deck by making him the most obnoxious jerk in school. On top of that, he's also the bully who has several face-offs with our body-switching hero, so the flick is underpopulated, as well as oversimplified.

Beyond that, how come no one else (like the coach) recognized the school's star athlete from only twenty years earlier -- especially when there are pictures of him in the hallway? I mean, I enjoyed the movie; it just would have been better if YOU had written it.