Jennifer Garner’s New Netflix Comedy Is a Reverse 13 Going on 30

Any Mount Rushmore of Body Swap Movies must include a few exceptional titles. Big, for sure. Vice Versa, probably. Real ones know All of Me with Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin is way, way up there. And of course there is 13 Going on 30, with Jennifer Garner playing the adult version of a girl who makes a wish at 13 and wakes up 17 years in the future in her 30-year-old body.

The film has become a mid-2000s favorite, and one of Garner’s signature roles. It could be kind of tricky making a sequel some 20 years later, but how about the inverse premise? What if Jennifer Garner was now older and swapped places with her teen daughter? A kind of 30 going on 13 situation, if you will?

That is the premise of Garner’s new comedy Family Switch, which is coming to Netflix later this fall. Except it’s not just a mother and a daughter swapping places; everyone in this family switches around, including the dad, played by Ed Helms.

Netflix

Family Switch director McG told Entertainment Weekly that the film is well aware of Garner’s earlier body swamp movie, and they actually played into nostalgia for it, saying

We overtly mention 13 Going on 30 ... there's a meta sort of runner in the movie because I like showing the audience that kind of respect. We get it, we get it.

Here is the film’s official synopsis:

Jess and Bill Walker are doing their best to keep their family connected as their children grow older, more independent, and more distant. When a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up to a full body switch, on the morning of the most important day of each of their lives, can the Walkers unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal and soccer tryout? Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers and Brady Noon star in this family comedy directed by McG and based on the book "Bedtime For Mommy" by Amy Krouse-Rosenthal.

Don’t you hate when a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes your family to wake up to a full body switch?

Family Switch premieres on Netflix on November 30. I don’t know if it’ll wind up on the Mount Rushmore of body swap comedies, but I could see this being a very popular title on Netflix this holiday season.