The 2003 Freaky Friday was an important movie for me growing up. From an era where Disney’s live-action theatrical machine was pumping out movie after movie, it remains a movie that successfully straddles the line between dated piece of 2000’s nostalgia and timeless family flick. The original (yes I know it’s technically NOT the original, but we’re calling it that for this review) probably wishes it had a do-over for a few things, particularly the awkward Asian stereotypes used to incite the body swap between mother-daughter Tess and Anna. But beyond that datedness and a few other things, Freaky Friday remains an enjoyable comedy about generational divide and parental-child relationships.
The anchor of that movie is obviously Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s genuinely great comedic performances. In what feels appropriate for a Freaky Friday sequel, the career arcs of the two stars have basically swapped in status since 2003. When the OG film came out, Curtis was in the midst of a career renaissance and Lohan was at the height of her powers as a young adult superstar. More than 20 years later, Freakier Friday arrives in a completely different context, with Curtis returning to this sequel an Oscar and Emmy winner and Lohan trying to shed years of controversy and questionable decisions for a comeback of her own. While their careers look very different, Freakier Friday proves one thing for certain—these two still share the same chemistry and affection for one another.
We’ve seen decades-later sequels similar to Freakier Friday flame out time after time. There was rightfully skepticism retreading this concept, as the body swap premise has been played out well beyond the context of the Freaky Friday brand. The big hook of this sequel is that the body swap body count has doubled. Anna (Lohan) is preparing to marry Eric (Manny Jacinto of The Good Place and The Acolyte fame), a hunky British single dad. The father of Anna’s daughter Harper (Julia Butters) is never explicitly revealed, though it appears to not be old boyfriend Jake (Chad Michael Murray). Anna and Harper have their own tensions as a mother and teenage daughter, something that Anna is very familiar with from her previous experiences butting heads with Tess (Curtis).
Tess and Anna are now mostly on the same page, but Harper and Eric’s daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons) cannot stand each other. How this new family will be able to survive in the same room is hard enough, but it gets even more difficult when you add the possibility of a move to London, an idea that surfer girl Harper violently rejects. As it did in the past, the universe takes over, as a low-rent fortune teller (an amusing Vanessa Bayer) initiates the multi-generational body switch. Anna and Harper swap bodies, as do Tess and Lily. Hijinks ensue.
Freaky Friday got a lot of comedy out of the Baby Boomer-Millennial clashes between Tess and Anna. Freakier Friday adds the zoomer generation to the mix, and everyone gets quite a few beats to play. Once again, it is Curtis that makes the absolute most out of this opportunity. It’s quite amusing to hear her talk like a teen again. While imitating Lily, she also slips in a lot of British slang and wordings that add a lot of amusement to normal American line deliveries. For all of its flaws, this movie proves its worth just for the image of Tess crawling on the floor of a record store looking for “old people music” (aka Coldplay).
If you’re grading Freakier Friday in the context of the basics of filmmaking, there’s a lot of things that you can pick apart. While it is delightfully one of the only recent movies of its kind that was actually given a theatrical release by Disney, it is also one of the flattest-looking movies I’ve seen in a long time. It looks like it belongs on streaming. Nisha Ganatra’s direction is very much focused on getting the most out of the actors. That’s easily the most important part of this movie, but it makes the rest of the film feel sloppy and too loose. Freakier Friday’s pacing gets really choppy when the body-swapping starts. It often feels like a collection of scenes with comedic setups instead of a whole film, only really coming together in the end.
At nearly two hours long, that plagues the movie with an unwelcome inconsistency, but that only ends up slightly mattering in a film that is often surprisingly funny. There are way more jokes in Jordan Weiss’s script than I expected. Many of them got chuckles out of me. The young actresses are impressive, particularly with the physical comedy that is asked of them (Tess and Anna really enjoy the temporary benefits of youth). But this is unsurprisingly Curtis and Lohan’s film, and the two of them make the most out of the reunion, delightfully chaotic as Harper and Lily go undercover to try and split up their parents.
I also felt the movie mostly showed restraint in nostalgia baiting. Most of the original cast comes back in some capacity, but only Michael Murray and Mark Harmon have semi-substantial roles. There are a lot of good comedians that pop in for small roles; Chloe Fineman, June Diane Raphael and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan are among those that are welcome presences here. But Freakier Friday knows you’re here to see the further adventures of this dysfunctional mother and daughter, and delivers plenty of enjoyment in that regard.
Freakier Friday is in theaters everywhere this Friday.
