Mike O'Donnell (Zac Effron) has everything going his way in 1989 when he is the star on the basketball team, is the most popular guy in high school, and has a pretty girlfriend named Scarlet (Allison Miller). He champions the cause of Ned, a nerd who is ridiculed by other players on the basketball team. On the biggest day of his life, Mike is called upon to impress a college scout who is in the stands watching him play. But news from Scarlet that she is pregnant challenges him to make a life-altering decision: marriage to her or going his own way to college and success as a basketball star. He chooses Scarlet.
Twenty years later, and Mike (Matthew Perry) rues his choice. He is separated from Scarlet (Leslie Mann); he's been passed over for a promotion at work; and he feels totally disconnected from his two children, Maggie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Alex (Sterling Knight). He laments these failures and setbacks to Ned (Thomas Lennon), his high school buddy now turned techno-billionaire. But thanks to the intervention of a white-bearded janitor, Mike has a chance to replay his life. He is miraculously transformed into his 17 year-old self again.
Mike enrolls in high school and finds himself as a peer to his two children. He is shocked to find out that his son is the prey of a bully who is dating Maggie. He also has a hard time watching the changes in the life of his adult wife Scarlet, who is dating again and has become a gifted landscape designer.
Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) directs this witty comedy that contains elements of Big and other dramas of transformation. The best thing about the screenplay by Jason Filardi is that Mike's chance to re-write the script of his life takes a direction he does not expect: playing the role of a nurturing father looking out for his kids. In one of the most memorable scenes in 17 Again, he gives three reasons why the scumbag who has humiliated Alex is a bully. He stands by his son in another way by training him to go out for the basketball team and to muster the courage to ask the girl of his dreams to go out with him. Mike also tries to counsel his rebellious daughter Maggie. Scarlet is mystified by this young man but she doesn't shut him out. That enables him to express his love for her in ways that touch her heart.
A subplot revolves around Ned's zany romantic pursuit of Jane Masterson (Melora Hardin), the principal of Mike's high school who has a surprise in store for him that is better than anything he could ever dream about. In 17 Again, love's tricky and unpredictable, a force that cannot be explained or controlled.
