Freakier Friday Adds More Body Swaps but Keeps the Original’s Charming Comedy

In 2003, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan made for an unlikely but winning comic duo in Mark Waters’ adaptation of Freaky Friday. Curtis had the opportunity to once again show off her winning comic talents, and Lohan, a rising star of the Disney set, showed she could anchor a picture the same way Jodie Foster did when Mary Rogers’ book was adapted back in 1976. The remake found a prominent place in the hearts of millennials, and now those millennials have kids of their own, which has proved a winning formula for the studio like with this summer’s live-action Lilo & Stitch. Thankfully, Nisha Ganatra’s Freakier Friday is a solid continuation of the 2003 movie, retaining the charm of Waters’ film with a healthy dose of nostalgia for those who love the mother-daughter body-swap comedy. Curtis and Lohan haven’t missed a beat in their comic chemistry, and they’re now joined by the winning Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons. Rather than an attempt at some lofty reinvention (it’s Freaky Friday, for God’s sake), Ganatra’s take is more of a reunion tour where we bop our heads along to the familiar tunes.

Picking up 22 years after the original, Anna (Lohan) is where her mom Tess (Curtis) used to be: a single mom raising a teenage daughter, Harper (Butters). Also, like Tess, she’s now found a new guy, charming chef Eric (Manny Jacinto), and plans to marry him. But unlike the first movie, the new-dad-to-be also has a daughter from a previous marriage, Lily (Hammons). Harper prefers being outdoors and surfing while Lily is obsessed with fashion and just wants to move back to London with her dad. In addition to Harper’s anger at her mother, Anna feels like she doesn’t understand her daughter, and she’s annoyed every time Tess tries to butt in and take over parenting duties. The tensions are rising, which means it’s time for a body swap, although thankfully without the cringey orientalism of the previous movie. At Anna’s bachelorette party, a fortune teller (Vanessa Bayer) gives ominous premonitions to all four women. And sure enough, when the women awake the following morning, there’s been a body swap. Harper and Anna have swapped bodies and so have Lily and Tess. They still have to masquerade in each other’s lives, but Harper and Lily see an opportunity to use their newfound adult bodies to break up the coming nuptials between Anna and Eric.

Obviously, a sequel needs a new twist, but it was a wise decision to make sure that the film wasn’t only about Anna and Tess again. Although almost all sequels are legacyquels now, at least here it makes sense given the original’s conflict about mothers and daughters. Furthermore, both the 1976 version and the 2003 version were opportunities for young actors to make a splash with audiences, and Butters and Hammons make good use of their screen time here. The fun of the role is playing the generational gap, and it’s nice to see the duo running around and showing the joy that Anna and Tess have in young bodies that can metabolize anything and fall down without being seriously injured. It helps sell the jocular tone where you can poke fun at aging without it ever coming off as mean-spirited.