"Youth is wasted on the young" said playwright George Bernard Shaw when he was long past blooming cheeks and sowing wild oats — one imagines his creased face scrunched in bitter cynicism as he uttered those words. What would Shaw say if he saw "17 Again," the tailored-for-teens fable (saddled with a rather obvious moral) about a tired, middle-aged bloke who gets to restart life as the gorgeous 17-year old he once was?
At the start of the story, the bloke is painfully aware of how youth (especially his own) was far too precious to be wasted on the young (specifically, his former high school self). If he only knew then what he knows now! If he could only go back and do it over! There would be no squandering of valuable time, or wilful destruction of what could have been a glorious future. And then he gets his wish — a fairy god-janitor (don't ask) waves a magic wand and the doughy, sorry 37- year-old morphs into a slim teen with laughing eyes and shining dark hair.
"17 Again" is directed by Burr Steers, who made an impressive feature debut in 2002 with the semi-arthouse work "Igby Goes Down." That was an honest, keenly observed portrayal of teen angst and confusion in all its vulnerable glory. His latest, however, has none of the subtlety or lightness of touch that made "Igby" so intriguing.
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