RIOTUS

The 2003 Freaky Friday was never my thing. While I like Jamie Lee Curtis, I was outside the target age demographic for Lindsay Lohan to matter much to me, as I was an adult at the time. I also grew up in a time when the 1976 Freaky Friday starring Jodie Foster and Barbra Harris was still constantly on TV along with the original Parent Trap, The Love Bug, and The Shaggy Dog along with many other live action Disney family films of that era was mainlined into Gen X and Elder Millennial’s brains through syndication so my loyalties lie there. A great deal has happened in the entertainment industry, and the careers of Lohan and Curtis have undergone significant transformations. To put it lightly, Lohan has had trouble transitioning from being a teen star, a Disney one at that, to adulthood, with all the terrible ways the media hounded many of those women in the 2000s. To see her bounce back and return in a sequel twenty-plus years later is pretty endearing to me.  

The first film is about a mother, Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis), and her teenage daughter, Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan), who are at odds with each other after they switch bodies and lives to understand one another better and heal their discord. The sequel opens up with Anna, now a mother with a teenage daughter of her own, Harper (Julia Butters). Anna is a very helicopter mom with Harper, who’s a free spirit who loves to surf and is very protective of her perfect world, her mother, and Tess, her grandmother, as well as surfing. Tess is very involved in Anna and Harper’s lives. Curtis is great here in the dynamic as she ends up undermining Anna with Harper.

Harper also has a rival at school with the posh British girl Lily Davis. The complete opposite of Harper, who is known for wearing t-shirts and shorts and not caring about her image, Lily is obsessed with fashion and hyper-femininity, and the two are constantly at odds, often getting them into trouble at school, leading Anna to meet Eric Davies (Manny Jacinto), Lily’s father and star chef. Anna and Eric hit it off instantly, and they fell in love, getting engaged. This is the main conflict-inciting incident of the film. Harper and Lily initially dislike each other but must learn to be sisters, while Harper and Anna experience conflict because Harper believes Anna doesn’t care about her wishes. Lily wants to go back to England. Tess’s main issue is that she’s scared of being alone with nothing to focus on outside of her daughter and granddaughter. Of course, they are being magically switched, with the teens ending up in Anna and Tess’s bodies, and the adults in the kids’ bodies.

The film is very charming and funny. I laughed throughout the entire film. It captures the feeling of 2000s Disney family films. The standout performance in this film is Jamie Lee Curtis’s portrayal of the 15-year-old Lily in Tess’s body. Curtis is just so believable as a young teenager in a senior citizen’s body, which is hilarious throughout. She carries a good portion of the film. I also think Sophia Hammons does well as Tess in Lily’s body. The physical performance is more subtle, as seeing a kid dress like an older lady often makes her look like a “nerd” most of the time. Lohan is effective as both Anna and Harper in Anna’s body. It does show her range, as Harper is a distinctly different type of character from those we’ve seen in these types of movies. Lohan also still has great comedic timing and works well with Curtis on screen. They make a great pair on screen.

Manny Jacinto is his usual charming self on screen as the confused Eric. He’s a great family film male romantic lead, and he gets to show off his dancing moves a bit, too. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan plays Ella, a young recording artist who Anna seems to be the manager and A&R of at Capitol Records. Yes, Anna is a record executive now, and these little challenges could’ve been annoying, but Ramakrishnan is the right amount of over-the-top and a cute distraction in an overall cute movie. Freakier Friday is a good family film that effectively captures the feeling of the original, even if it won’t resonate with people in the same way.