Pleasing, But Not Fully Satisfying: ‘Freakier Friday’ is Better Than You Think, But Misses the Mark in Places

By Jackson TOYON

It’s been 22 years since we first saw Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan swap bodies – and lives – in the charming 2003 comedy “Freaky Friday.” In the film, exasperated mother Tess Coleman (Curtis) and her teenage daughter Anna Coleman (Lohan) are forced to walk around in each other’s shoes, gaining a new appreciation and respect for each other. The generational gap between them proved to be a highly entertaining vessel for both laughs and a few tears in the film, and both Lohan and Curtis shined with memorable chemistry. Comparison is the thief of joy but it’s an appropriate theme for this review as one can’t help but compare the 2003 original with this latest release, both where it shines and where it falls short of the bar set by the 2003 film. Initial trailers for the film had some audiences worried that “Freakier Friday” might be fully reliant on nostalgia, but it ended up defying my expectations.

The big difference in “Freakier Friday” is that we’re now following an even messier switch between four characters – the swap now includes the teenage daughter of a grown-up Anna, Harper (Julia Butters), and her soon-to-be stepdaughter, British immigrant Lily Reyes (Sophia Hammons). Originally classmates, Harper and Lily started off their school year hating each other immediately. After an incident in their chemistry class, their parents are called in to speak with the principal – an event that sees Anna and Lily’s father Eric (Manny Jacinto) rapidly falling for each other. They plan to be married after only six months of dating and Anna decides that their new family should move to London together, an arrangement that the constantly bickering Harper and Lily are none too pleased to hear. After a palm reading from a supposed psychic (Vanessa Bayer) at the bachelorette party, the swap kicks the story into gear – Anna and Tess are now switched with Harper and Lily and vice-versa as our characters endure the challenges of merging two families.

The largest issue I have with this film is that it lacks the rich world from the first film. When the situation was a mother-daughter relationship, there was little need for exposition because you visually understood the conflict right off the bat, freeing up time to focus on the story and other elements. With a complex four-way body swap, there’s not much room for the charming, tinier relationships that made the original so full of life. The relationship of Tess with her extremely anxious patient Evan, Anna’s quiet routine of trading lunches with her detention teacher and her back-and-forth with her younger brother added color to the world Anna and Tess inhabited. But small moments like these are hardly found in the sequel.

Despite those flaws, the film’s comedy and sweeter moments hold up well enough on their own. Jamie Lee Curtis carries most of the laughs, as one may expect, but Lohan slips back into the role of Anna with ease and even the newer costars bring a likable chemistry of their own. The emotional beats don’t quite reach the heights of this movie’s predecessor, yet they still land. Nearly every character from “Freaky Friday” makes a return appearance, whether minor or not – from Anna’s ex-boyfriend Jake (Chad Michael Murray) to her old teacher Mr. Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky). While the movie’s visuals have a not-so-great “Disney+ Original” sheen to them, the story and conflicts balance it out a bit by successfully bringing back much of the lively energy of the 2000s that the first movie was brimming with. 

It may not be as satisfying as the original 2003 film, but “Freakier Friday” ends up delivering on the premise of the franchise just fine. The four-way swap and exposition needed for the new characters holds the film back from carrying all the delightful background quirks that “Freaky Friday” had in spades, but it succeeds in being funny and sweet, which are the essential pillars that the franchise is built on. 

Wrapped in nostalgia as it is as legacy sequels go, this is one of the better ones to come out this year. For those who love the original movie, “Freakier Friday” is worth a watch.