17 Again (2009)

The start of something new

The Disney Channel has not been a reliable pathway to stardom. For every Zendaya, Sabrina Carpenter, and Olivia Rodrigo, there’s a Chez Starbuck, Kimberly J. Brown, and Cozi Zuehlsdorff. And that’s not an even ratio — the vanishing acts and D-listers vastly outnumber the chart-toppers and award-winners. The truth is, most Disney alumni quietly fade into trivia-night oblivion, remembered only by those of us who have binged all four Halloweentown films.

The biggest attempted crossover of the late 2000s was Zac Efron, golden boy of the High School Musical trilogy. I’m on the record as staunchly pro-Efron: his presence in those movies is sensational. He couldn’t sing (shoutout to Drew Seeley), but he could sell a number and carry the film’s spirit better than anyone else in the cast — better than pretty much anyone else in any Disney Channel Original Movie cast. Disney Channel never hit a bigger casting grand slam. That said, transitioning from TV-movie heartthrob to legitimate movie star was always going to be tricky. Efron never quite made it to super-duper-stardom, but he’s carved out a steady career and even earned some awards buzz for The Iron Claw last year. I’m always happy to see him turn up.

The first theatrical release engineered to test Efron’s big-screen bankability was 17 Again, a mid-budget fantasy-comedy from 2009 that’s essentially a PG-13 remix of his HSM persona. Once again, he’s a dreamboat basketball star gliding through the high school halls like he owns the place. This time, though, it’s coated in a glaze of adult melancholy and sex jokes, which goes far in expanding Efron’s range. The film was a medium-sized hit, making over $100 million at the box office, and it confirmed that at least some of Efron’s fans were willing to pay for the privilege of watching him outside the confines of East High School (“What team? Wildcats!”).

17 Again is a one-man body-swap movie. Mike O’Donnell (Matthew Perry, RIP) is a depressed 37-year-old dad. As he mopes about his lost potential, he transforms back into his 17-year-old body, now played by Efron. The internet has had a field day mocking the idea that Efron would age into schleppy Perry, and sure, it’s a leap. But if you fast-forward Efron twenty years and remove a few dermal fillers, it’s not quite as outlandish as people make it out to be.

The film opens with a flashback: about to graduate high school, Mike walked away from a basketball scholarship to marry his pregnant girlfriend Scarlet (Leslie Mann in the present, Allison Miller in the past), and twenty years later, he’s aimless. Scarlet is leaving him, his two kids, Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg, RIP) and Alex (Sterling Knight), want nothing to do with him, and he’s just been passed over for a promotion at work. After a late-night heart-to-heart with the school’s mystical janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray), Mike jumps off a bridge to save him like he’s George Bailey, and wakes up in his teenage body. With the help of his geek-turned-tech-millionaire best friend Ned (Thomas Lennon in the present, Tyler Steelman in the past), Mike re-enrolls at his old high school under a fake identity to chase the dream that escaped him — but quickly discovers that his real mission might be reconnecting with his kids and rekindling his connection with Scarlet.

The film has a few genuine strengths going for it. The biggest is Efron, who is a bit of a revelation even for us Troy Bolton-heads. Efron plays Mike as someone constantly slipping between worlds: old soul, teen body, aching heart. When he watches his kids struggle or shares screen time with Mann, he actively engages with Mike’s lifelong regret. He’s trying to sell broad emotions in a comedy, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t mostly land.

He’s also quite funny, moreso than in High School Musical, and in a way that hinted at the comic roles he’d dip into throughout the 2010s. Early in the film, he mimics Perry’s speaking cadence and mannerisms, enough to sell the transformation illusion before the script sort of forgets that aspect and it’s back to normal Zac. Still, Efron’s comic range is on display: goofy swagger (the cafeteria scene is one of cinema’s great stand-up-to-the-bully sequences), slapstick, and punchline delivery. It’s a versatile performance for the hopeful breakout.

The film leans into its ookiness in when it starts to explore the awkward implications of its own premise. Mike’s teenage daughter Maggie becomes increasingly flirty with her mysterious new classmate, the dreamboat insistent on standing up for her and boosting her morale, unaware it’s actually her dad in a de-aged body. It’s basically a reverse Back to the Future. Meanwhile, Scarlet finds herself drawn to this odd young man who reminds her uncannily of her husband in high school, and we get some cross-generation romance scenes (though Efron and Mann are only 15 years apart in real life). Mann is very funny threading that needle between her romantic confusion and maternal instinct, and the film dances around an almost-insightful commentary on how we frame gender and sexuality in adolescence. Mike, for example, is the hyper-vigilant dad telling his daughter to wait until marriage while simultaneously coaching his son to be more confident with girls. The movie tiptoes toward critiquing that double standard, though it backs away just before anything gets too pointed.

Running parallel to all this is a wholly separate B-plot about Ned, the best friend, trying to seduce the high school principal (Melora Hardin). Lennon is all in as a wacky cartoon of a nerdy loser, and it’s fun to see him unleash when he’s usually cast in bit roles in movies like this (see: I Love You, Man). But the thread is so disconnected from the main story that it starts to feel like it wandered in from another movie entirely. It nails one of its Lord of the Ring references (a Gandalf the Gray vs. Gandalf the White joke) though its emphasis on a “longbow” from the fantasy series is a biff in the name of a double entendre.

17 Again marked the feature debut of director Burr Steers, who would churn out a few more mixed-to-panned mid-budget films, including the ill-fated Pride and Prejudice and Zombies adaptation, before retreating into TV director anonymity. But here, he does a solid job steering a potentially idiotic premise into something both light and sincere. The film’s tone is a wonderful tightrope act: a misfire and you’re in unintentional cringe-comedy hell. But Steers mostly keeps it balanced. Much of that credit goes to Efron for anchoring the movie, but Steers deserves props for getting that performance out of him and for keeping the energy high.

Efron may never have fully shaken off the teen heartthrob label the way, e.g., Leo did, but I’m grateful he keeps showing up and going all in. I’m not complete on his filmography (notably, I’ve not yet seen The Iron Claw), but I don’t think he ever got a better all-in-one showcase for his charm than 17 Again. He’s charismatic, vulnerable, and funny. It’s a film built to sell his potential, and it does its job.

Is It Good?

Good (5/8)

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Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.