Senior Year

The new Netflix romcom starring Rebel Wilson as a woman who goes back to high school after 20 years in a coma relies heavily on 1990s body switcheroo and raunchy teen comedy tropes.

“Senior Year” is a throwback movie, and in more than just the sense it’s about a woman who wakes up from a coma after 20 years and decides to go back and finish high school.

This comedy starring Rebel Wilson is basically out of the “body switcheroo” mold that dates back almost 50 years, from “Heaven Can Wait” to “Freaky Friday.” It also has a slightly raunchy tone reminiscent of 1990s flicks, nowhere near “American Pie” but definitely harder than “Mean Girls.” It carries an R rating from the MPAA, mostly for language.

The movie — directed by Alex Hardcastle from a script by Brandon Scott Jones, Andrew Knauer and Arthur Pielli — has a decent amount of heart and a few good LOL moments. But it relies a heavily on those old-school elements, feeling more like a retread than a rethink.

It actually starts out strong, with some funny/observant comments on how much society has changed over the last 20 years. But then it shifts into neutral/bland comedy mode for the second half.

It reminded me somewhat of the Drew Barrymore romcom “Never Been Kissed,” about a girl who felt out of place in high school and is now looking to make some positive moves. Although in this case, Stephanie Conway (played by Angourie Rice as a teen) learned this lesson at age 14, tired of being the awkward girl with the Australian accent. So she made some changes and by senior year had climbed to the top of the popularity leader: cheer captain, dreamy boyfriend, etc.

Her only rival was Tiffany, whom she supplanted as the top dog — even sorta-swiping away the aforementioned boyfriend, Blaine. So Tiffany arranged for a little “accident” to happen during the big school assembly right before prom, resulting in Stephanie getting conked.

She wakes up in 2022 with the body of an almost-middle-aged woman, but still having the memories and mentality of her 17-year-old self. So, of course, her first instinct is to return to Harding High and finish out the last month of senior year, reclaiming the “perfect life” she’d been working so hard for.

There’s a funny bit where she wakes up in the hospital, sees herself in a mirror and demands to know why a pissy old lady keeps staring at her.

(I will here have the brief, obligatory discussion about Wilson’s weight loss, this being her first starring role since her transformation. She’s talked quite openly on social media and interviews of being tired of being the “funny fat girl” and wanting to make big changes in her life, including having a child. Good for her. Suffice to say her outsized screen persona is pretty much the same, though she does look quite different. Honestly, I thought her hairstyle contributed more to this change than her body, eschewing her familiar side-sweep forelocks. But after about 15 minutes, you adjust to her new look and forget about it. So, let’s.)

Wilson plays Stephanie as a shy, self-loathing girl who overcorrected and became the bossy, self-centered yang to her timid yin. She wasn’t a particularly good friend to her two besties, and now her post-coma life will hopefully be the (literal) wake-up call she needed.

Chris Parnell plays her sweet, supportive dad, who lost his wife to cancer when Stephanie was a teen and has essentially put his own life on hold ever since. Mary Holland is Martha, her nerdy friend who is now the school principal, and Sam Richardson is Seth, who was secretly sweet on her back in the day and now works as the school librarian.

It goes without saying that you have to leap over all sorts of logistical and legal hurdles of why Stephanie wouldn’t be able to go back to school. Let’s start with: after 20 years in bed, she’d have to relearn to walk, let alone soon be able to resume her cheerleading stunts.

But this portion where she reintegrates into school is actually the best of the movie. She’s dismayed by how nice and equitable — and boring — everything has become. The cheerleaders are now a mixed gender squad in shapeless jumpsuits doing routines about the importance of consent. All the kids sit at one long table at lunch so there are no tiers of popularity.

Of course, there’s still a hierarchy but it’s all shifted to social media. Stephanie quickly realizes that it’s her ticket back to ruling the school. It’s a little awkward at first; in her first Instagram video she encourages, “Let’s make it a virus!” Her handle is @HotComaGirl113 — “Can you believe there are 112 other coma girls?”

Her competition is Bri Luvs (Jade Bender), a social justice warrior/influencer who’s rumored to have millions of followers. Getting a like or follow from her is the attention every student craves. Turns out her mom is Tiffany (Zoe Chao), now married to Blaine (Justin Hartley) and living that perfect life Stephanie feels was stolen from her.

It’s right about here the movie heads south, turning into a Stephanie/Tiffany rivalry, with Bri as her mother’s resentful stand-in. They strive to see who will be prom queen, the jokes become stale, and the story heads into familiar bitchy face-offs and put-downs. The only thing missing is a cheer-off a la “Bring It On.”

It’s fine to harken back to old movies, but “Senior Year” stops making clever jokes about the time warp, and instead gets stuck in one.