Film review: ‘FREAKIER FRIDAY’ Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Guess what folks, the big new cinema release for this week is a sequel. Freakier Friday is the follow up to the juvenile but fun 2003 body swap comedy Freaky Friday which starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, a mother and daughter whose consciousness swapped bodies so that each had to live the other’s life and learn about their struggles. This was itself a remake of a 1976 Disney film that starred Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris. Despite the fact that the premise would no doubt enrage materialist philosophers, the film was a success in large part because of the two leads’ enjoyable performances. Curtis and Lohan are back 22 years later bringing much of the same quirky energy to what is otherwise a pretty silly film.
In Freakier, Lohan’s Anna Coleman, is now a single mother, who has foregone her dreams of becoming a rock star and instead manages temperamental music divas as well as butting heads with her rebellious 15-year-old daughter Harper (Julia Butters, who played the youngster who counselled Leo in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). Meanwhile, Curtis’ Tess is still working as a psychiatrist but seems to have more issues than any of her clients. Adding chaos to the household, Anna becomes engaged to Eric (Manny Jacinto) who just happens to be the father of Harper’s high school nemesis, snooty Brit, Lily (Sophia Hammons). As the marriage approaches and the squabbling amps up, another mysterious magical body swap occurs as mother and daughter Anna and Harper exchange consciousness and Tess and Lily do the same. Why they don’t all just stay home and make excuses to schools and employers while they try and undo the body swap is unclear but as they take on each other’s lives, the adults see the snarky high school world Harper endures while the teens have the shock of adult responsibility and aching backs.
The tone and the humour of Freakier Friday at times recalls Mean Girls but too often feels like a typical zany Saturday morning Disney tween TV show. Consequently, any smart teen satire quickly gives way to childish goofiness. Also, being a Disney film, there’s an overwhelming sense of wholesomeness with a clean, bright, sunlit aesthetic and constant reinforcement of family values. The film offers a vaguely amusing take on what used to be called the generation gap as Harper, inhabiting Anna’s body, encounters cringeworthy examples of adult lameness while Anna as Harper becomes increasingly incensed by teen insouciance.
The cast mostly makes the four-way swap work, each capturing at least some of the character of the person whose consciousness has popped into their body although at times they just act like their original selves. Jamie Lee Curtis stands out, though, throwing everything into her surprisingly physical turn as Tess while Saturday Night Live’s Vanessa Bayer almost matches her as the kooky fortune teller who unleashes the body swap magic.
Freakier Friday may prove a little too juvenile for some adult audience members chaperoning their youngsters but it moves at a sprightly pace and while a few gags fizzle, enough hit the mark to make this, for the most part, a fun piece of cinematic fairy floss.
Nick’s rating: ***
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Adventure/ Animation.
Classification: PG..
Director(s): Nisha Ganatra.
Release date: 7th Aug 2025.
Running time: 111 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.