by JOANNE LATIMER

"I'm 30, flirty and thriving," asserts Jenna (Jennifer Garner), trying to wrap her 13-year-old mind around her grown-up life as a fashion magazine editor. Jenna got her girlhood wish. Director Gary Winick got his wish, too, with his lead actress in 13 Going on 30 delivering such a winning performance that the movie's stupid premise - involving time travel and wish dust - is quickly excused. Why be a killjoy?

Winick is the producer behind films like Uptown Girls and Pieces of April, so he's no novice at appealing to women's fantasy lives. With 13's new set-up, he delivers some classic suburban wish-fulfillment: grown-up nerdy girl discovers that she befriended the popular girls in high school, moved to Manhattan, fills a B-cup, got a great nose job, has a walk-in closet full of designer clothes and is dating a New York Ranger. She has a driver and she works at Poise magazine. In short, she became a character on Sex & the City.

She also became a vain witch with no moral compass. Jenna neglected her family after dumping her childhood friend, the lovestruck Matt (Mark Ruffalo). Matt's wounds were almost sealed over 15 years later when Jenna - all legs and cleavage - appeared at his door in the Village, asking him to recall her childhood. Ouch. Matt, now a hottie himself, is defenceless again.

Things get messy at Poise magazine, with intellectual embezzling and loathsome amounts of big city pretension. Despite all the film's great sundresses and fun tunes from the Go-Go's and Rick Springfield, the movie makes some serious points about how people can grow up to become hateful versions of their younger selves. Jenna is suddenly faced with a portrait of her (grown) character failings. It takes the glow off her wardrobe.

Will she make amends? Did the demands of adulthood permanently corrode her sense of right and wrong? Hell no. This is a love story and the Boy Next Door will have his dream girl. Yeah, it's truly silly. Enjoy every minute.

13 Going on 30 opens Friday, April 23

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