Freakier Friday

Grade: C

I could pretty much copy and paste my review of Happy Gilmore 2 and use it as a template for one about Freakier Friday, and it would apply. This is exactly what you’d expect from a 22-years-later sequel to a remake. What famously happens in Freaky Friday happens again, and double this time, to confusing results. I had to constantly remind myself who was who. Funny thing is: the movie and performances work best at the beginning and end, when everyone is themselves.

Lindsay Lohan is back as Anna, now a single mother pushing 40, with a teenage daughter named Harper. Anna’s mother Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the blissful, helpful grandmother. Harper’s lab partner in school, Lily, has recently moved from London. She is stuck-up and they butt heads. Anna meets Lily’s single father Eric at a parent-teacher meeting to talk about the girls’ behaviors. They take a liking to each other, and just a few months later, they are about to get married. As Harper and Lily are none too pleased with being soon-to-be stepsisters, the supernatural woo-woo stuff rears its head again, and there’s a four-way body swap. Lily becomes Tess. Tess becomes Lily. Anna becomes Harper. Harper becomes Anna. My brain becomes exploded.

Basically, Lohan and Curtis take on the roles of the teenagers at odds, doing what they can to break their parents up so the wedding won’t happen, and (I really tried not to say it, but excuse me) vice versa. Regarding the Lily (Sophia Hammons) and Tess (Curtis) swap, I had a problem with the non-transference of the accent. Not having Curtis suddenly start talking like she’s in Downton Abbey is a missed opportunity for some comedy gold. Though her verbiage does include words like “bloody” and “fancy,” Hammons as Lily as Curtis doesn’t pick up an American vernacular – and both women keep their accents.

The talented Julia Butters is an excellent casting choice as Harper, not just due to her physical resemblance to Lohan. She had a show-stealing scene as the little girl comforting Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie-within-a-movie filming in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. Otherwise, there are scenes that have been played out before in all the past body-swap movies – like when characters hear things said about them, with the other person unaware that that person is right there, in someone else’s body. Throw in the old jokes like “oh my god, I’m old” and “hey, I just stood up and nothing hurts,” and it’s business as usual.

How did I know the film would end with outtakes, showing the cast messing up, cutting up, and improving? Sorry, I should call it improv-ing. They certainly weren’t improving. They always seem to show this stuff at the end of movies where you don’t care to see it. Now, footage from the filming of Together or Weapons – those are outtakes I’d be interested in seeing. Lohan and Curtis are clearly great friends. It’s pretty public knowledge that Lohan is clean and sober, and has been enjoying a nice career comeback starting with 2022’s Netflix-as-Hallmark holiday romp Falling for Christmas. Curtis has been sober from alcohol since 1999, and has been reported to host AA meetings in her trailer, where anyone working on the movie is welcome to attend. My biggest takeaway from Freakier Friday is that I’m happy for them, that they got to reunite and do this. We just didn’t need to see it. I’d tell them to go out for coffee or something next time.

Grade: C