12A • 101 mins • 10 April

Director: Burr Steers

Cast: Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Thomas Lennon, Leslie Mann, Michelle Trachtenberg, Sterling Knight

Rating:

Safety alert: see 17 Again at the wrong time and you’ll be swamped by screaming teens. 17 Again, you see, stars Zac Efron, High School Musical heart-throb… and with that, thousands of readers flee to the next review. But here’s the shocker: 17 Again is actually pretty good.

Efron plays Mike O’Donnell, hunky high school basketball star (this is news?). However, Mike then learns his girl’s up the duff, and chucks in teen glory for a life of wedded bliss. Twenty years later, Mike has metamorphed into Matthew “Chandler-from-Friends” Perry, on the brink of divorce and bitching over his wasted life. A twinkly stranger offers him the chance to have his time over, then dives from a bridge (yup, It’s A Wonderful Life). Mike follows and is rejuvenated to Efron-hood, allowing him to see his wife and kids from a whole new perspective…

It may read like a reverse of Big, or a retread of second chance fare like The Family Man. Actually, 17 Again turns into an unofficial remake of Back To The Future, and an alarmingly smart one. The film gets through its fetishisation of Efron’s abs quickly, then plunges straight into paging-Dr-Freud regions. The 17-year old Mike has a teen “daughter” – Buffy’s Michelle Trachtenberg – and adult “wife”, neither of whom recognise him... you do the math. Even with the clean-cut Efron deflecting perviness, there’s a reason why the BBFC rated this 12A against the distributor’s wishes.

Even if you’re immune to Efron’s Valley Boy looks, he carries the film; he’s charming, engaging and funny as he conveys a protagonist trying to unite past and present selves (though no way do you believe that Perry is the same character). Sidekick Thomas Lennon plays a pointy-eared geek stereotype that’s two decades out of date, but with a superlative payoff. It’s just a shame most over-17s won’t dare see this in a cinema…

Andrew Osmond