Movie Review: 17 Again

American culture glorifies youth so much that most people are obsessed with their high school years. I wouldn't blame them because high school is something that one either hates or loves. This movie kinda glorifies the high school experience once again and how decisions made at that time will go on to shape the rest of an individual's life. The story centers around Mike O' Donnell who has been thrown out of his house by his wife, his teenaged children don't want to have anything to do with him and at work he is passed up for a promotion.
 
Back up a few years Mike was the high school basket ball pro who was all set to go to college. On the evening he was supposed to play the match that would get him a scholarship to go to college he comes to know his girlfriend is pregnant. He throws it all away and settles down with this wife to raise a family. But deep within he harbors a sense of loss, a feeling that he would been someone else, done something else if his girlfriend now wife had not gotten pregnant. This feeling leads to angst and gets him to the brink of divorce.
 
There is a divine intervention at this point in his life and he is transformed into a 17 year old. He goes back to the same school that his children go to and then starts the fun. He becomes the coolest kid at school and changes the lives of his son and daughter and finally reclaims the love of his life - his estranged wife. The whole process is riddled with comedy and high school fun. The story and theme could have been handled much better but this movie is ok... not too bad. Worth watching once.