FREAKIER FRIDAY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
Jamie Lee Curtis is a comedic treasure. In the family film Freakier Friday, she eyes drugstore “senior products” with horror, wails over wrinkles and having “no lips,” gulps ugly tears, and bemoans knees not moving as fast as her mind wants.
Channeling a teenager who finds her mind plopped inside the body of a suburban grandma, the sixty-six-year-old Oscar-winner is game and gloriously endearing.
The film itself is funny and charming too.
It’s been twenty-two (!) years since Curtis and Lindsay Lohan teamed up in their version of Freaky Friday, itself an update of Disney’s 1976 film co-starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster. In both, based on the book by Mary Rodgers, mothers and teenage daughters who butt heads understand each other better after a little magic causes them to literally spend time inhabiting each other’s lives.
Freakier Friday sees Curtis’s psychiatrist Tess Coleman and her music producer daughter, Anna (Lohan, Our Little Secret), believably still getting on each other’s nerves. Anna is a single mom to Harper (Julia Butters, The Fabelmans), a teen surfer, who adores her grandma, partly because Tess undermines Anna while trying to be supportive to both of them.
Anna also is about to become a stepmom to Lily (Sophia Hammons, Up Here), a fashion-forward teen from London who clashes with Harper at school and at home. The girls’ misbehavior actually leads to Anna’s meet-cute with Lily’s father, Eric (Manny Jacinto, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur), a handsome chef, in the film’s early moments.
“I’ve never seen two parents so attractive, er, attentive,” says the principal (X Mayo, Abbott Elementary) while the two complement each other’s kids as they flirt in her office.
The wedding preparations cue up the conflict as Eric and Anna consider moving with the girls to London. An incantation from a kooky spiritualist (Vanessa Bayer, No Good Deed) at Anna’s bachelorette party casts a spell that switches not just Tess and Anna but Lily and Harper too. (The film thankfully avoids the cringe magic fortune-cookie setup that swapped Tess and Anna the first time around.)
Anna and Harper swap bodies, leaving Harper in her mom’s body dealing with up-and-coming pop star Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Slanted) and tango lessons with Eric. Meanwhile, Lily and Tess trade places, causing the Brit to freak out over the apparent decrepitude of seniors. Mark Harmon (NCIS), returning as Tess’s husband, Ryan, wonders what’s come over his pickleball champ wife and her sudden penchant for lip plumper and sparkly eyeshadow. (Shoutout to costume designer Natalie O’Brien and the hair and makeup artists for translating the swapped personalities to everyone’s looks.)
As Tess and Anna try to track down the spiritualist to get back to normal, Lily and Harper connive to sabotage the wedding. While the conflict between the girls and the stress over the move feels superficial, screenwriters Elyse Hollander (Dollface) and Jordan Weiss understand that what viewers want to see is Curtis, Lohan, and their co-stars not acting their ages—and the ensemble amusingly delivers. There are some expected Gen X/Gen Z jokes, but a lot of the laughs come from the physicality of the performances and the characters’ observations.
Lohan and Curtis clearly have a ball acting like teens on the inside, whether they’re agog over the stylings of Ella’s fashion shoot, driving as if they don’t have a license, or trying to convince Anna’s ex (a returning Chad Michael Murray) that she still has feelings for him. Their infectious chemistry makes them a treat to watch.
Butters and Hammons don’t have as many broad moments, but they’re hilarious channeling Tess and Anna as they get sidetracked by all the fast food they can eat and tool around on scooters without fear of breaking a hip. “We’re invincible!” one cries in triumph.
Director Nisha Gantra (Deli Boys) gives each a moment to shine, but also hits the emotional notes as Harper learns more about her rocking mom and Lily deals with her grief over losing hers.
Just like its predecessor, Freakier Friday has a fun pop-rock soundtrack, with Lohan and Butters performing a sweet ballad and Lohan in a harder track with Anna’s onscreen bandmates, Pink Slip. But the message about not making assumptions and the enjoyable characters really hit the high notes.
Like the new The Naked Gun, Freakier Friday is a film that deserves to be seen with a crowd—and a friend, mom, or sister.
