Freakier Friday Film Review

Many years ago, I took my children to the cinema in Australia to watch Freaky Friday. They enjoyed it, but I am sure I enjoyed it even more. I certainly laughed more often! The original film featured Lindsay Lohan playing daughter Anna Coleman and Jamie Lee Curtis as the mother Tess Coleman. There was a great supporting cast including Mark Harmon (Jethro Gibbs) as Ryan, Tess’ fiance, Chad Michael Murray (Tristin from Gilmore Girls) as Jake, the very confused object of Anna’s huge crush, and Stephen Toblowsky (Ned from Groundhog Day) as vengeful teacher Mr Bates. If you haven’t seen it the original is well worth a watch, and I did rewatch it the afternoon before going to the film in the evening just to refresh my memory. I was very glad that I did as there were so many call-backs to the original in the sequel.

The Plot

We revisit the characters of Tess and Anna just over twenty years after the events of Freaky Friday. Anna now has a daughter, Harper, who is 15 and in a running battle with the new arrival at school, posh English girl Lily. When Anna is called in to the school after their rivalry causes a problem in the chemistry lab, she meets Eric Reyes, Lily’s father, and the romantic sparks begin to fly. This causes Harper and Lily’s rivalry to go into overdrive as they face the prospect of being the world’s most reluctant stepsisters. To make things worse, the blended family face the decision of whether to move to London or to stay in Los Angeles.

Away from the family setting, Tess is still a therapist but she is now also dispensing her wisdom via a podcast as well as her continued success as a published author. Anna has continued in music, but has moved into management with a singer called Ella who is going through a break up that her former boyfriend has referenced in the song Better Than the Last One (Ella)! Mother and daughter are facing a situation with clear reminders of their shared past. The scene is set for a four way body swap! This time, Harper and Anna find themselves in each other’s bodies and Lily and Tess also swap places. There are just a couple of days before the wedding, a wedding that Harper and Lily are determined to sabotage. Somehow, Tess and Anna need to use their new bodies to thwart these plans and limit the damage that Harper and Lily can do to their careers and personal lives!

My Thoughts

This was an absolute joy throughout as Freakier Friday played around gleefully with the body swap genre and tied the two movies together with frequent Freaky Friday references and reappearances. First of all, I must say how great it was to see Lindsay Lohan back to her best. As one of the best young actresses of her generation she had already made at least three enduring films, Parent Trap, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, showcasing her comedic talent and her excellent singing voice. In this film, she reminds you why she has such a place in the hearts of film fans who watched her in the 2000s. She is funny, especially physically where her ability to handle the most bizarre aspects of Anna’s behaviour is given a showcase. Her onscreen, and offscreen, relationship with Jamie Lee Curtis is as strong as ever, and this closeness brings out the very best she has to offer as an a actress. However, she also shows a real emotional depth, particularly in her interaction with her daughter as they start to understand each other by walking more than a few miles in each other’s shoes. Jamie Lee Curtis hams up the physical comedy perfectly whether she is driving, playing Pickleball, hiding behind album covers or changing up her author photo for her latest book. As with the original, she takes a lot of emotional weight on her shoulders and does so in a way that perfectly complements the comedy.

The two new central characters, Harper, played by Julia Butters, and Lily, played by Sophia Hammons were the equals of their more experienced co-stars. They made you completely suspend disbelief as the older characters in the younger bodies. Using gestures, body language and facial expressions they channelled their older selves brilliantly. There was no camera trickery involved, merely great attention to detail. These two young actresses created real characters in both a real and an unreal situation. Prior to the swap, their misbehaviour, which could have come across as brattiness instead came across as the acting up of two frightened and confused teenagers who saw everything they knew in life being upended.

It’s actually very difficult to properly convey how well the relationships between the two pairs, all four of the main protagonists and the effect on their friends and families was handled. I found myself writing about the post swap scenes with a sense of confusion because I realised that throughout the bulk of the film I had completely accepted that the older characters had taken over their younger selves and vice versa. The skill involved in all four actresses doing that so subtly was amazing and made the film an absolute joy from start to finish.

The final flourish of this film was the way that they brought back so many of the original cast. The permanently embittered Elton Bates explained his continued presence at school as the result of his pension fund being invested in crypto by the state! He is tired and worn down, but he can still make his students’ lives a misery. Jake now runs a record shop and still has unrequited feelings for Tess that are resolved very amusingly in the final scene for fans of the original. Ryan is sadly relegated to a few scenes this time around, but he makes the most of the scenes he is in. The real standouts in the returning cast are Christina Vidal and Haley Hudson as Maddie and Peg, Anna’s bandmates in Pink Slip. Their reunion is a great set piece and an emotional highpoint that sees Anna finally embrace her full personality once again.

If you liked the original you will love this and if you haven’t seen the original you really should. This is a fantastic family comedy and I wholeheartedly recommend it.