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MOTHERHOOD |
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There is a scene in the film "Motherhood" when Eliza Welsh's (Uma Thurman) husband (played by Anthony Edwards) asks her "What are you
trying to say?" That is exactly what I would like to ask Director Katherine Dieckmann and Uma. What are you trying to say? "Motherhood" clumsily rambles on and in the end says absolutely nothing! |
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He is overlooked for a promotion to
regional sale manager losing out to a hot female sales person with much less
experience. What he fails to notice that all
the other salespeople are hot females, he was the odd man out. After an
outburst he is fired. On top of that Scarlett (Leslie
Mann), now older but still good looking, has filed for divorce because he
constant blames her for his adult failings. So he moves in with his boyhood
friend Ned Gold (Thomas Lennon) who was once picked on as a nerd and is now a
wealth nerd for developing popular security software for both corporations
and hackers. Mike laments his life, wishing he could do it over again. Just like in "It's a Wonderful Life"
a quirky angel hears his plea and grants his wish returning him back to
his senior year in high school. No teleporting him back to the 80's but
simply making him 17 years old again. |
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Ned claims young Mike (Zac Efron) as
his son and takes him to his old high school to enroll him. There he begins interacting with his
son and daughter who have real issues with which he knew nothing of as an
adult. His son Alex (Sterling Knight) is bullied by the school stud (Hunter
Perish) and his daughter Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) is dating that bully. Naturally he encounters Scarlett who
notices he looks a lot like her ex (him) when he was young. The movie progresses in and some predictable
and some unpredictable manner. It could have stayed true to "Back to the
Future" but didn't. The truly hilarious moments are not from Efron or Perry
but from Lennon who never stops his fantastical nerdishness. The best laughs are from Lennon who
courts the school principle (Melora Hardin) first by 'peacocking' then by
various other outlandish manners only a complete geek would think off. Yes the story steals from more
movies than the law allows, but nevertheless works well. Steers does not let
it get slapstick nor mushy and keeps it relative to most generations. No, "17 Again" will not make you want
to go back to that age, but it does impressively conquer the consequences of
doing so in a humorous manner. --GEOFFREY BURTON
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