Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back and swapping bodies like there’s no tomorrow. Here’s our Freakier Friday review.
If you were to revisit 2003’s Freaky Friday, you’d probably be surprised how well it has aged and still holds up. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan made for a believable mother-daughter duo who end up swapping bodies after a local Chinese lady sees them arguing.
The new sequel, helmed by Nisha Ganatra, comes a whopping 22 years after the first, but as it turns out, very little of the charm has been lost.
Curtis and Lohan are back as Tess and Anna and it’s now Anna’s turn to be a mother to teenager Harper while Tess is the pushy grandmother. Anna is also due to get married to Manny Jacinto’s Eric, bringing his daughter Lily into the mix as well. Except Lily has no interest in a new family, instead yearning to go back to England, which is more than fine with Harper.
Naturally, there’s some body swapping in Freakier Friday. A psychic at Anna’s bachelorette party curses Harper and Lily to swap bodies with Anna and Tess, which leads to a lot of physical comedy as the two different generations get used to each others’ bodies.
Unfortunately, a lot of the Freakier Friday’s comedy also stems from making fun of just how old Tess is. After the 30th joke about her wrinkles and arthritis, we get it, but Ganatra keeps repeating the same jokes over and over again. Similarly, Anna and Tess are surprised to find their buttocks feel firmer and they can now eat junk food without feeling bad about it.
Freakier Friday also mostly settles for repeating the plot twists of the first film. Much of the humour stems from the same punchlines and there’s little new here. The movie is constantly funny, but can’t fight that feeling of tiredness.
Yet, Freakier Friday is a blast. Much of why the film succeeds despite its obvious flaws is down to the actors. Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons are arguably better in the quieter moments when embodying the characters of significantly older characters and not commenting on their appearance.
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But it’s Lohan and Curtis who draw the biggest laughs here. Curtis especially is on fine form here; her performance is carefree and fearless. While she’s always been a great performer, Curtis has found a completely new flavor to her work in recent years and it’s a joy to watch her let loose at this level.
Lohan and Curtis are particularly confident when it comes to the physical comedy. Freakier Friday utilises it more than its predecessor and dares to have fun with it. Even when it grows a little old – see what I did there? – it’s hard not to admire the pure effort and commitment put in by the pair.
Manny Jacinto brings great support as Anna’s beau Eric and the actor gets a great scene to show off his dance moves. There’s a hint of Ryan Gosling in La La Land present here and it would be easy to see Jacinto as a full-blown musical star. In fact, the film could have used a bit more of Jacinto, but instead, Ganatra brings back Jake, Chad Michael Murray’s dreamboat from the first film. He doesn’t get to do much but a few scenes hint at more character development. Perhaps that was left on the floor of the editing suite.
Freakier Friday is constantly at odds with itself. On one hand, it can’t quite find its own voice or story to tell, but there’s so much to enjoy and many laughs to be had. It also struggles with its core audience; is this made for 15-year-olds or 35-year-olds who grew up with the first one? Perhaps both demographics will find something to enjoy here, but Freakier Friday could have stood to be a little bolder and a little freakier.
Freakier Friday is in UK cinemas 8th August.
