The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
13 Going on 30
Comedy · Fantasy · Romance · 2004
After total humiliation at her thirteenth birthday party, Jenna Rink wants to just hide until she's thirty. Thanks to some magic wishing dust, Jenna's prayer has been answered. With a knockout body, a fabulous wardrobe, an athlete boyfriend, a dream job, and superstar friends, this can't be a better life. But soon Jenna realizes that adult life isn’t as easy as she hoped for.
Movie details
13 Going on 30
“For some, 13 feels like it was just yesterday. For Jenna, it was.”
2004 Comedy · Fantasy · Romance 1h 38m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
After total humiliation at her thirteenth birthday party, Jenna Rink wants to just hide until she's thirty. Thanks to some magic wishing dust, Jenna's prayer has been answered. With a knockout body, a fabulous wardrobe, an athlete boyfriend, a dream job, and superstar friends, this can't be a better life. But soon Jenna realizes that adult life isn’t as easy as she hoped for.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over 13 Going on 30?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
When We First Met
Comedy · 2018
Using a magical photo booth that sends him back in time, Noah relives the night he met Avery over and over, trying to persuade her to fall for him.
Disenchanted
Comedy · 2022
Disillusioned with life in the city, feeling out of place in suburbia, and frustrated that her happily ever after hasn’t been so easy to find, Giselle turns to the magic of Andalasia for help. Accidentally transforming the entire town into a real-life fairy tale and placing her family’s future happiness in jeopardy, she must race against time to reverse the spell and determine what happily ever after truly means to her and her family.
IF
Comedy · 2024
After discovering she can see everyone's imaginary friends, a girl embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten imaginary friends with their kids.
It's a Boy Girl Thing
Comedy · 2006
A visit to a natural history museum proves catastrophic for two high school rivals, an overachiever and a jock, when an ancient Aztec statue casts a spell that causes them to switch bodies and see exactly what it's like to walk in the other's shoes.
Penelope
Fantasy · 2006
Forlorn heiress Penelope Wilhern is cursed, and the only way out is to fall in love with someone of suitable stock. But how can she find her soulmate when she's sequestered inside her family's estate with only her parents to keep her company? This untraditional fairy tale is about a girl who bucks convention to create her own happy ending.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Fantasy · 1999
Mistaken identity, unrequited love, and the supernatural are combined in Shakespeare's classic set in the woods of Greece on a moonlit night.
The Little Vampire 3D
Comedy · 2017
Tony, a thirteen-year-old boy on vacation in rural Germany, is fascinated by the idea of vampires. Meanwhile Rudolph, a vampire of "similar" age (313!), encounters trouble when his clan is threatened by a dangerously obsessed hunter. Fate brings these two boys together, as Tony & Rudolph set off an action-packed battle to stop the villain, save Rudolph's family and learn the power of friendship.
Irish Wish
Romance · 2024
Maddie's dream guy is days away from marrying her best friend when a wish for true love made on an ancient stone in Ireland magically alters her fate.
Long Story Short
Romance · 2021
Teddy wakes up the morning after his wedding to discover that he's jumped forward a year in his life to his first anniversary. Trapped in an endless cycle of time jumps, transported another year ahead every few minutes, he is faced with a race against time as his life crumbles around him.
Enchanted
Comedy · 2007
The beautiful princess Giselle is banished by an evil queen from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid - even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince back home - she has to wonder: Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?
Where it lives
Watch in your region.
Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.
Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Gary Winick
Written by
Cathy Yuspa · Josh Goldsmith · Rita Hsiao
Jennifer Garner
Jenna Rink
Mark Ruffalo
Matt Flamhaff
Judy Greer
Lucy Wyman
Andy Serkis
Richard Kneeland
Kathy Baker
Bev Rink
Phil Reeves
Wayne Rink
Sam Ball
Alex Carlson
Court is in session
Put 13 Going on 30 on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.