'Freakier Friday' Review: A Millennial Retread That Still Shows Off Some Magic in Its Premise
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis continue to be a phenomenal on-screen team in the Nisha Ganatra-directed sequel

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Disney has yet to give up on their long-running Freaky Friday franchise. What started out as a 1976 feature with Jodie Foster has been adapted for every generation since, most famously the 2003 film starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan—though, justice for the forgotten 1995 film with Shelley Long. And after seeing the utter train wreck that was Hocus Pocus 2 and the Enchanted sequels, it’s understandable that fear permeates this reheating of another beloved franchise.
Thankfully, director Nisha Ganatra breaks the Disney+ curse with Freakier Friday. In the hopes of reheating everything millennials once loved, and a desire to pull in the Gen Z and Gen Alpha crowd, Disney has returned to the Freaky Friday universe with a movie that doubles up on everything, including the number of people switched. Tess and Anna Coleman (Curtis and Lohan, respectively) have appeared to learn from their initial switcharoo. Anna is a single mom to teenager Harper (Julia Butters) and is a successful music manager, at the expense of putting aside her own musical aspirations. But Anna’s mother, Tess, struggles to let Anna parent Harper on her own, inserting herself into their dynamic.
Tess and Anna’s problems seem natural to women now in their late thirties and sixties in Jordan Weiss’s screenplay. Tess is trying to move from authoring to podcasting while Anna is every millennial trying hard to stay centered, believing a grounding breath will keep her anger at bay. Yet each of them is clearly showcasing a facade, hiding their fears about growing up, mortality, and being alone. So Tess stalks Anna’s Instagram to turn smothering into helpfulness while Anna just sublimates everything she feels. Unlike the first film, where Tess was already engaged, we see Anna meet and fall for Eric (Manny Jacinto), a kindhearted British widower with a teenage daughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons) of his own.
There’s no tricks up anyone’s sleeve with Freakier Friday. From the minute Anna and Eric meet—and decide to marry after just six months together—it’s obvious to see where everything will go from there. But what makes everything fun is how the four actresses, both established and ingenue, hold everything together. A bizarre psychic, played by a kooky Vanessa Bayer, replaces the more racist fortune telling aspect from the first feature, though the end result is the same: Anna, Tess, Lily and Harper all switch places. Harper in her mom’s body and Tess in Lily’s. And while the obvious learning lessons are established quickly that never diminishes the pure fun to be had in Freakier Friday.
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Weiss’s script toes the line between making comments about the distinctions in the generations and belaboring the point. There’s the obligatory needle drops for the likes of Spice Girls, Britney Spears and Chappell Roan, as well as pokes at Gen Z sensitivity—Harper’s door has a sign that says, “No triggering. Respect my safe space.” Lily, in Tess’s body, screams out at a pickleball match about Boomers which leads to a hilarious exchange with two other women about being “We’re Gen X. Elder millennials.” However this can lead to inconsistency in how the younger girls act around other young girls, particularly Anna’s famous music client, the single-named Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). It’s hard to think they’d have no ability to chat with her.
But like the 2003 film the focus and joy of watching Freakier Friday comes from the dynamic and acting prowess of Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. The two don't just seamlessly slip back into their old characters of Tess and Anna, they perfectly inhabit two totally new characters without making you think they’re playing at it. Lohan, having a career renaissance of late, is solid as Anna. She’s every millennial trying to hold it together, maintain a sense of identity, AND be the person her fiancé and daughter need her to be. When she’s Harper, she’s deftly reverts back to the young girl trying to find her place in the world. A wordless scene of Lohan on a surfboard in the ocean, or asking Lily (in Tess’s body) about why she hates California, conveys the optimism of a life just beginning. She also nails the physical comedy, particularly when trying to flirt with old flame Jake (Chad Michael Murray).
Let’s be real, though, the Freaky Friday universe has been, and always will be, about Jamie Lee Curtis who continues to go for broke here. As Lily, she is simultaneously petty, vain, brittle, and hilarious. (Shout out to costume designer Natalie O’Brien, who gives Curtis even more fantastic outfits to wear.) It’s easy for Curtis to play Lily’s selfish side, whether that’s putting on massive amounts of lip plumper for a passport photo shoot in a Walgreens or trying to explain why she can’t get up from a squatting position. Yet Curtis’s experience as a performer makes her able to give Lily necessary depth. A scene in a record store, wherein Lily has to disclose a lie she’s been telling, is perfect in Curtis’s hands as the actress whispers, “You’re not going to tell anyone are you?” You can hear the fear underneath every syllable. She also continues to have a ton of fun with Murray who, this go round, might have had some residual fallout from the previous film.
Hammons and Butters hold their own in the dual roles they’re meant to play as both parent and adult. But maybe because the issues of high school haven’t changed that much—or have so much it’s doubtful a Disney movie like this would discuss them—there’s little special to their plot line once they’re left playing adults trapped in teen bodies. The jokes generally extend to how the pair can eat whatever they want and can ride e-scooters without fear of getting hurt. Butters and Hammons are strong comediennes and can give the more serious tones the third act requires, but they aren’t given enough strong material to make you want to follow them around. Odds are this is why they feel so marginalized when the switch takes place.
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Freakier Friday is the best Disney sequel in a minute thanks to the continued joy of watching Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis together. The comedy is broad and the story formulaic, but all of that is what builds on some of the best Disney classics. This is another good installment of the Freaky Friday franchise worth taking your kids to see.
Grade: B-
Freaky Friday is in theaters Friday.
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