MOVIE REVIEW : Magic Bubbles Can’t Help ‘Un-Becoming’

The comic premise of “Un-Becoming Age” (rated PG-13 for sensuality and playing at Laemmle’s Sunset 5) doesn’t make a whit of sense.

On her 40th birthday, prim, pampered and unhappy Julia Cole (Diane Salinger) gets a vial of magic bubbles. Her wish, which is granted, is that she no longer has to act her age. Or something like that. We’ve been through a gaggle of movies about kids becoming adults and adults becoming kids but here we have an adult who seems to want to be an adult-kid and a kid-adult.

Or something like that.

Julia in her post-wish phase is supposed to be a tomboyish free-spirit but a lot of what she does looks suspiciously like a nervous breakdown. She’s acts wholesomely sluttish (adult-kid) and aggravatingly goofy (kid-adult). Her stuffed-shirt husband (John Calvin) can’t figure out what’s going on, which bonds him immediately to us. Her friends (Colleen Camp, Shera Denese) are a bit out of their depth (make that shallowness) too.

Co-directors Deborah and Alfredo Ringel are married and previously turned out such instructional home videos as “Tennis Lessons From Bjorn Bjorg,” “Skiing Lessons From Gene Heinz Landsmann” and “Golfing With Sam Snead.” One does not anticipate a huge demand for “Directing With Deborah and Alfredo Ringel.”

‘Un-Becoming Age’

Diane Salinger: Julia

John Calvin: Charles

Adam Ryen: Junior

A Ringelvision Entertainment production, released by Castle Hill. Director Alfredo Ringel and Deborah Taper Ringel. Producers Alfredo Ringel and Deborah Taper Ringel. Screenplay by Meredith Baer and Geof Prysirr. Cinematographer Harry Mathias. Editor Alan James Geik. Music Jeff Lass. Production design Phil Dagort. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (sensuality).