Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 72 Ratings

  • Starring: Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Mark Ruffalo
  • Summary: It is 1987 and Jenna is a 13-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood. The problem is that adulthood is just not arriving fast enough. She makes a wish on her birthday: If only she could be all grown up, she'd have the life she's always wanted. Miraculously, her wish comes true. (Columbia Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 35
  2. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. The rare commercial comedy that leaves you entranced by what can happen only in the movies.
  2. While 13 Going on 30 is too formulaic to sustain the delicacy of emotion that gave "Big" its appeal, it has tour-de-farce moments that made screenwriters Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa's "What Women Want" such a monster hit.
  3. An unexpected pleasure, a buoyant comedy that will make you feel young again.
  4. Reviewed by: Angel Cohn
    60
    Director Gary Winick serves up enough giddy fun that it's easy to turn a blind eye to the film's skewed sense of time and minor anachronisms.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 28
  2. Negative: 3 out of 28
  1. 10
    This was one of the first comedies that made me realize comedies were becoming something more than just laugh machines. I think a skewed sense of time is irrelevant when you are in the genre of fantasy, which this is. The morals that it presents but does not shove down your throat are impeccable and everyone would live happier lives if they listened to the message in this movie. It is never too late to be a better person and choose quality over quantity. Expand
  2. I actually really thought this movie was cute! I've watched it a few times already..and I'll watch it again someday! I liked it! Jennifer Garner also played her role great! I love how she acted as a 13 year old in it, it's a good family movie. That will also give you a few laughs! Expand
  3. Gerry
    8
    Cool movie, Garner is more than just a (very) pretty face, she has unreal charisma and charm. The movie never drags, and who can't relate to the adolescent angst that she and her would-be boyfriend experience, as well as the feelings we all have as we get older that cause us to wonder if we had just done "this, or that" a bit different when we were younger, things might have turned out better? In a sense, the movie is really like a combination of "Best Friend's Weddiing", and the theme about the Ghost of Christamas Future from Dickens. Unlike Julia, she gets a second chance, which is cool, because someone as awesome as Garner will ALWAYS get a second chance...I mean, she deserves it, she knows it, and we know it! Totally charming movie, and I think very well cast as well, it is a disservice to simply call it a "chick flick" (OK, it is, but there's more to it than that) or something similarly demeaning. This movie has real class, and Jennifer Garner, in my book, is the coolest of the new young actresses. Expand
  4. matta.
    2
    I like Tom Hanks better. Stick to Alias girlfriend.

See all 28 User Reviews

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