‘Freakier Friday’ Movie Review: Curtis And Lohan Are Still Game In Sillier, If Not-Always-Funnier, Sequel
Photo from Disney
From Jeremy Kibler
A 22-years-later sequel has to really justify its existence when its predecessor, Disney’s 2003 body-swapping comedy Freaky Friday, was such a delight. Fortunately, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are back again as therapist mother and rocker daughter but also as grandmother and mother. One of the rare sequels to a remake (the third screen adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel), Freakier Friday takes the switching of bodies to the fourth power this time, and while it’s sillier and high-spirited, broad wackiness doesn’t always equal funnier. Charm still carries the day.
Anna (Lohan) is now a pop star’s manager and a single mom to teenager Harper (Julia Butters), who just wants to surf (and the movie thankfully never makes mention of the identity of the father nor makes it a sticking point). Now a grandmother, Anna’s mother Tess (Curtis) has a new published book on the way as she turns to podcasting. When Anna meets cute with widowed British restauranteur Eric (Manny Jacinto), it’s over their kids’ constant squabbling that lands them in detention. Before you know it, Anna and Eric are getting married, and Harper’s school rival, snooty fashionista Lily (Sophia Hammons), is becoming her stepsister.
The first time, lesson-learning body-swapping was caused by a cursed fortune cookie. Now, it’s Vanessa Bayer’s fault. Well, okay, Bayer is playing Madame Jen, a palm reader and general multi-hyphenate who’s also a life coach, Reiki practitioner, Starbucks barista, and business card maker. A psychic reading at Anna’s G-rated bachelorette party then leads to an overnight switcheroo at midnight. Anna and Tess wake up in the 15-year-old bodies of Harper and Lily, respectively, and then the teens get stuck in Mom and Grandma’s bodies. As a somewhat clever inversion of The Parent Trap (there’s even a reunion with Lohan and Elaine Hendrix, who played gold-digger Meredith Blake), Harper and Lily want to break their parents up, so Harper can stay in Los Angeles and Lily can go back to London. Freakier (and more complicated) body-swapping hijinks ensue, and exactly like the first film, this one also concludes on the same day as a wedding rehearsal (Anna’s this time) and a concert.
As funny and entertaining as it was sweet and wise, Mark Waters’ Freaky Friday was more cleanly plotted and the body-swapping much easier to follow. As directed with poppy gusto by Nisha Ganatra (Late Night), Freakier Friday looks a little slapdash, feels more frantic, and decidedly opts for more mugging. Ganatra lets a food fight scene play out too long and sneaks in a makeover montage, a fashion shoot, and a pickleball tournament. The laughs are not necessarily bigger, but the performers certainly are going bigger and flinging themselves into the slapstick.
With her three cute-enough romantic comedies on Netflix, Lindsay Lohan has already made her return. But more than ever, she looks radiant here and really gets to cut loose in playing a kid again, as does a very enthusiastic Jamie Lee Curtis. Both Lohan and Curtis are physically game for all of the silly places the plot asks of Harper and Lily inside of Tess and Anna’s bodies. They each get moments that are comedically inspired, like when Lily-as-Tess gets her idea of the “essentials” for a decrepit old person at the pharmacy and when Harper-as-Anna makes an aggressive attempt to flirt with Anna’s high school boyfriend Jake (Chad Michael Murray, returning in all his blonde-haired glory) at his record store.
The second body-swap in Jordan Weiss’ script isn’t so much freakier as it is just more hectic and convoluted. Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons get the shorter end of the stick with the comedy once Harper and Lily trade bodies (although drinking red and white grape juice in wine glasses earns a light chuckle). In contrast to some of the slapstickiness, the quieter, more emotional moments do actually ring true, landing enough from the viewer getting a clear understanding about what specifically Harper and Lily want. Of the two younger performers, Butters (who showcased wise-beyond-her-years gravitas in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood) does at least get the most chances to find emotional depth, and a final grace note with her and Lohan is tender.
Honestly, though, it’s the shticky, oddball supporting players living in the margins (most of them female comedians) who bring the biggest laughs. Vanessa Bayer is hilarious as the side-hustling Madame Jen, the comedy department’s MVP and the entire plot’s catalyst, as is X Mayo, as the brassy school principal. Even Chloe Fineman, as an Australian dance instructor, and Santina Muha, as an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent who quickly forgets about her breakup when the music of Chumbawamba gets brought up, steal bits of comedy. Christina Vidal Mitchell and Haley Hudson are more like faces in a crowd here as Anna’s friends and members of Anna’s former band Pink Slip, but when the band reunites and performs an on-stage encore of “Take Me Away,” it’s a major joy.
Freakier Friday may not always be funnier, as much as it tries—and oh, boy, does it try hard—but it’s still warm and energetic. The fun everyone is having is so infectious that a serviceable belated sequel can get by on goodwill.
Rating: 3/5
Freakier Friday is currently in theaters.
