Age Isn't Everything

AGE ISN'T EVERYTHING is an inverted BIG. In BIG, a 13-year-old boy goes to sleep and awakens inside his own adult body. In the former, a reluctant yuppie awakens with the anatomy of an octogenarian and a Yiddish accent of unknown origin. If this fails to entice, be advised that this well-observed but somewhat uncheerful comedy is never entirely sure of its identity, or how to establish it.

The opening sequences are witty and auspicious. Seymour the baby observes the world and his doting family from the wide-angle perspective of the crib. When a boy, Seymour asks his father Max (Paul Sorvino) the height of a rocket. Lacking any other comparative reference, Dad i...