Ah, Freaky Friday! Some readers may remember the original from 2003 starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. The wacky comedy has a stressed-out mom swapping bodies with her rebellious daughter the day before the mom’s wedding. Hilarity and family bonding ensue.
And now, a whopping 22 years later, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back, and it’s even freakier.
Intro to the franchise
If you’re like me, you might think this film came out of nowhere. Was anyone really asking for a sequel to a random 2003 Disney movie? And while I would still wholeheartedly argue, yes, the movie sort of came out of nowhere, the Freaky Friday franchise is actually much bigger than you probably realized.
Freaky Friday originated in 1972 with the children’s book “Freaky Friday” by Mary Rodgers. Four years after its release, she signed on with Disney to make a Freaky Friday movie. That’s right, 4 years, AKA 1976! The 70s film isn’t all that similar to the 2003 version, but more closely aligns itself with the original narrative. A mother and daughter swap bodies and learn lessons, but the similarities end there.
There were also two sequels to this 70s version of the tale, one where the father and son of the same family switch bodies, and one where the son can see the future, which was based on a sequel book Rodgers wrote herself. Then, as all franchises do best, it was rebooted. Surely this is the one we know?
Wrong, it’s the 90s! 1995 to be exact, and we have… Freaky Friday! No title change, mother and daughter fight, switch bodies, learn from each other, change back, you get it! And then finally, with a third attempt at the exact same IP, we got the Lohan and Curtis version that is still beloved today, still just titled Freaky Friday.
Freaky Friday was (mostly) great…
Upon rewatching the 2003 Freaky Friday, I was shocked by how well-made it is. To get it out of the way first, the movie has one element that didn’t age well at all, and that’s the way the mother and daughter switch bodies. Instead of going with the plot of the 70s movie, which is the fairly innocuous ‘magic of Friday the 13th’, this movie decided to get a tad…racist. Specifically, an old Chinese woman uses, and I quote, “Asian voodoo” to cause the characters to swap bodies. The swap is complete with gong noises in a Chinese restaurant and fortune cookies used to deliver information about the body swap. Even for 2003, this was pretty overtly offensive, and is the one dark mark on an otherwise well-made children’s movie.
Moving past that ugly blemish, we have the good: the acting, message, and humor. To start with the acting, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely kill their roles as Anna and Tess respectively. Lindsay Lohan is able to convincingly switch from a rebellious teen to feeling like she really is a mother trapped inside the body of a teenager, despite her being a mere 17 at the time. The performance is convincing enough that I had to remind myself that this was a fantasy, that there isn’t really a 40-year-old woman puppeteering Lohan. She’s just good at her job.
The message also has a lot of heart. Anna and Tess think the other has it so easy, but through swapping learn that they both have their own struggles and they need to acknowledge that and make sacrifices for the other. By the end of the film, Anna opens her heart to a new stepfather and Tess learns how important Anna’s band is to her. They both learn in equal amounts and give up equal amounts emotionally so the other can thrive. It’s very sweet and wraps up well.
And it was funny!
Finally, the movie shocked me with just how funny it was. A lot of the humor comes from relatability and absurdity. Despite the PG rating, the film gets away with a good amount. Examples include: an angsty Anna delivering an empty threat of suicide (met with rolled eyes) and an innuendo involving ‘the hives.’ These jokes for the adults pair well with the slapstick humor that still managed to get a chuckle out of me. Prime example: Anna and Tess slam together to try to ‘switch back.’ (Spoilers: that doesn’t work.)
There’s also the character of Jake, who, after learning Anna isn’t who he thinks she is (because it’s actually Tess), falls head over heels for Tess (actually Anna). He shows up at the house belting out a cheesy love song (poorly), to which ‘Anna’ promptly full-force tackles him. Once again, I burst out laughing at the absurdity. That arc ends with a positive message as well: Jake is attracted to Anna’s mind regardless of whose body she’s in.
So, since Freaky Friday was so great, surely the very sudden sequel is just as enjoyable?
Freakier Friday – the good
Twenty-two years and one 2018 musical later and the Freaky Friday IP is back, with a direct sequel set, well, 22 years after the original. The characters are all older, as one would expect, and it’s pretty obvious going in what the screenwriters will do: Lohan is now in the mother role and swaps with her daughter.
Fortunately for creativity’s sake, although Lohan does swap with her daughter, that isn’t the only swap in the movie. In a move I found quite impressive, and sometimes mildly confusing, they decided to have 4 characters swap bodies. Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) swaps with her granddaughter’s rival, Lily (Sophia Hammons), while Anna (Lindsay Lohan) swaps with her daughter Harper (Julia Butters). Confused? I was too. Although oftentimes more convoluted because of it, this lets the sequel do a lot of things the original couldn’t. It also teaches new lessons along the way, for better or worse.
Fortunately, this is mostly done well from a writing standpoint. All the new characters, especially Harper and Lily, are fully fleshed out and have their own arcs. The child actresses once again do a great job, probably even better than the original, at not only playing kids but adults trapped in kids’ bodies. If there’s one thing I can say for the movie, it is well-made and overall well-written.
Freakier Friday – the bad
Unfortunately, there are elements of the sequel that still irk me and leave me wondering, What were they thinking? For one, it feels like whoever wrote Anna’s former love interest, Jake, didn’t understand the point of his character. He returns in this film, but instead of being in love with Anna, he lusts after Tess. The point of the original is that he really loved Anna in the end, even when she was in her mom’s body, but this movie walks back on that heartwarming conclusion.
The second problem I have is the central conflict. It’s hard to talk about because it leads right up to the end of the film, but what I’ll say is that no longer is there a balance between mother and daughter both learning lessons. The kids in this movie don’t have the level of justification for their actions that Anna did in the original. In Freaky Friday, I wanted Anna and Tess to succeed. In Freakier Friday, I still just wanted Anna and Tess to succeed, not the other two.
Finally, the humor. I lauded the original for being shockingly funny, but this movie was unfortunately cringeworthy. If you’re Gen Z you will likely find the amount of “slays,” “literallys,” and “triggereds” thrown around to be annoying. It feels tailor-made so the older members of the audience can laugh and go, “Wow, Gen Z sure is silly!” I’ll call a spade a spade: the movie has boomer humor. Sadly, I think most people in their 20s will simply find Freaky Friday much funnier than Freakier Friday.
Should you see Freakier Friday?
Ah, the final verdict. Is the movie worth your time or money?
I have problems with it narratively, and you’ll likely roll your eyes at times, but it’s far from dull. If you like the original, this is a worthy follow-up narratively in the ways that matter. They spice up the body swapping formula and it doesn’t just feel like the same thing again. It pays homage to the original, while still doing its own thing. So, I’d say if you really have two tenners to blow on some entertainment, treat yourself to this movie. Otherwise, wait for the inevitable streaming release and enjoy it from the comfort of your own home.
Oh, and hey, they removed all the racist stuff this time!
