Review: Freakier Friday

Directed by: Nisha Ganatra

Written by: Jordan Weiss

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto

Rating: [3.5/5]

There are many ways one can threaten an individual, from the verbal to the physical, but a distinct method that works on me is Disney releasing a legacy sequel to one of their beloved films. They rarely measure up to their originals and mostly exist as throwaway junk. Freakier Friday had all of the makings to fall into this category but thankfully it mightily surprises. Certainly not up to the level of its predecessor, but it proves a genuinely fun film by allowing its original cast to have some fun. 

Raising her daughter on her own, Anna (Lindsay Lohan) has somehow found herself in a co-parenting situation with her own mother, Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis). When she finds love again and plans to marry Eric (Manny Jacinto), who has his own daughter, they try their best to merge their families together. However, their daughters do not get along at all as they enact a body swap situation Anna and Tess encountered before but with a twist. 

The idea of Freakier Friday brought chills down my spine more than any horror film could at the prospect of the lack of quality that would be on display. Despite my apprehension, this film not only proves its delightfulness but also does a splendid job in balancing both the legacy characters and the new ones. Most of the humor in the original Freaky Friday stemmed from the actors acting outside their age as they try to comprehend how to act before they switch back. This transpired with a mother and daughter, but this film had the switch occur as a four-way swap where Tess and Anna go into the bodies of the two youngsters and vice versa. This allows Jamie Lee Curtis once again to have a blast in her portrayal of a teenage girl. 

As anticipated, this film contains many narrative similarities to its predecessor as they try to figure out how to switch back, especially with a wedding on the horizon. While opting for this similarity runs the risk of falling into the many sequels run into, there are so many individual moments of both emotional resonance and comedic splendor to display how Lohan and Curtis still have their fastballs when playing this arena. So many particular moments stand out where similar moments occur but have their own flair. The scene where they first find out they have swapped bodies and Tess and Anna, in the body of these teenagers, try to brainstorm while the two other girls try the same silly tactics in the first film was pure gold. This film has so many of these moments. 

With this focuses on this four-way swap, Freakier Friday does a strong job in presenting and resolving the different issues each person has with the other. Lily (Sophia Hammons) does not want her father to marry Anna because she wants to move home, while Harper (Julia Butters) wants her independence. Similarly, Anna wants to build her own identity as a mother while also wanting to make this blended family work while Tess wants to desperately support her daughter. Each resolution feels quite meaningful for these characters as we get an emotional wallop at the end, just like the preceding film, showing this formula works well. 

Just as in the 2004 film, Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely devours this role as she has not lost a beat in the fun she has portraying a teenage girl. She proves once again to stand in a class of her own compared to all of the other actors in this cast, the way her comedic timing lights up in every scene she steps into. Truly a delight, but this film also features a nice performance by Manny Jacinto, who portrays the seemingly perfect man Anna hopes to marry in the near future. He, understandably, does not get the same screen time as the women in this story, but he makes the most of every second he gets, whether that involves him dancing or providing a wonderfully emotional speech. 

Bearing many similarities to the film that came before, Freakier Friday adds just enough in integrating the next generation to display how to properly pull off a sequel nearly 20 years later. Seeing Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan have a blast in reprising these roles and then getting to act as teenage girls warmed my heart, but also paid dividends as they knocked it out of the park. The other new and old cast members each had their moments to shine and put in their fair contributions as well further displaying this as a great success.