‘FREAKIER FRIDAY’ Review: Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis’ Rote Reunion Is More Throw-Out Than Throwback

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

FREAKIER FRIDAY

Rated PG, 1 hour and 51 minutes

Directed by: Nisha Ganatra

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Mark Harmon, Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Stephen Tobolowsky, Chad Michael Murray, Vanessa Bayer, Lucille Soong, Rosalind Chao, Ryan Malgarini, Elaine Hendrix

For as much as director Mark Waters’ remake of FREAKY FRIDAY understood the fundamentals of crafting a poignant, hilarious body swap comedy, director Nisha Ganatra’s legacy sequel FREAKIER FRIDAY fails to grasp those same concepts. Rather than create cleverly comedic conundrums and conflicts, it frequently relies on an egregious amount of ageist jokes centered on what these able-bodied ladies can and can’t do with their recently inherited bodily autonomy. And when the film’s not busy alienating the older female demographic with its rude ribbing about wrinkles, Eileen Fisher clothing and calcium supplements, it delivers convoluted new circumstances and reductive plot points. 

Ganatra and writer Jordan Weiss (working from a story by Weiss and Elyse Hollander) recycle the 2003 feature’s outline, beginning with harried, thirty-something single mom Anna (Lindsay Lohan) waking up her own tempestuous teen Harper (Julia Butters) on a school morning and later closing the film at a rock concert also featuring a mother-daughter duo. The in-between tomfoolery, involving a disciplinarian teacher and breaking up a rehearsal dinner, is also similar. However, this time the supernatural shenanigans factor in a few more people. 

In this continuing chapter, psychologist Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) is feeling a tad obsolete in her older years (despite an impending book tour and burgeoning podcast) and has overcorrected, becoming an overbearing force in Anna and Harper’s lives, much to Anna’s chagrin. Anna, who is now a music manager to popstar Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), is too exhausted to fight. In addition to these strained relationships, surly surfing high schooler Harper, who’s perpetually pouting in overalls and wool beanie, is finding it hard to get along with a snooty, fashionable classmate, Lily (Sophia Hammons), who’s moved from London to Los Angeles after her mother died. They mix like oil and water.

Making matters worse for the teens, fate has Anna on a collision course with Lily’s perfect, handsome father Eric (Manny Jacinto), and they instantly fall head over heels for each other. As Eric and Anna ready their wedding, a flighty psychic (Vanessa Bayer) reads Tess, Anna and her soon-to-be stepsiblings’ palms, cursing them into a 4-way soul switcheroo, with Anna swapping bodies with her daughter and Tess swapping with Lily. As Tess-in-Lily’s-body and Anna-in-Harper’s-body search far and wide to relocate the psychic to reverse the spell thrust on them, Lily-in-Tess’-body and Harper-in-Anna’s-body set out to break up their parents permanently, which entails bringing Anna’s hunky former crush (Chad Michael Murray) back into the picture.

Pacing issues abound, made worse by excessive padding. The pickleball tournament and immigration office appointment sequences could stand to be cut as they drag down energetic momentum and don’t impact either character’s overarching quest. The picture also never escapes its Disney+ aesthetics with its brightly lit, flat, shallow depth imagery.

Then there’s the humor. Anna might be exhausted, but the only thing that’s genuinely exhausting and tired are the film’s stigmatizing sentiments dealing with aging. None of those jokes are particularly funny. Women are not punchlines. Had those generational gags been excised or written with a sharper, incisive wit, the rote antics would at least be harmless. As is, it contains a troubling amount of scenes (a heaping handful) that have both sets of swapped souls complaining about their aged bodies, dietary wants, and medical maladies. For contrast, in the first film, there’s one line of dialogue that Anna-in-Tess’-body screams (“I’m the Cryptkeeper!”) and one scene where Tess-in-Anna’s-body eats fries.

Trapped in what this film would have you believe is a decrepit physique (Curtis’) doesn’t hold Lily-in-Tess’-body back in one sequence (posing in a squat during a fashion photo shoot montage), until it magically does in another (crawling on a record store floor only to stand up in a bone-crunching chorus). From the sequences where the teens motor-scooter around Los Angeles, pratfalling and eating junk food, to Lily-in-Tess’-body grabbing enema kits, denture glue and adult diapers off pharmacy shelves, these set pieces elicit the wrong kind of “yucks” from us.

Toxic humor aside, Lohan and Curtis make the most out of this nostalgic dip into the past. Their shared delightful chemistry is on screen from moment one, elevating the lackluster material and buoying the proceedings with their vibrant enthusiasm and effervescence. Blessedly, the hijinks aren’t limited to the stalwarts. Butters and Hammons have moments for their individual charms to shine. Butters delineates between her two modes of rebellious teenager and composed adult with assured aplomb.

There are other highlights as well. Because we’d expect nothing less from a beloved legasequel, cameos from the previous film’s supporting cast members like Lucille Soong, Rosalind Chao and Ryan Malgarini, as well as Lohan’s PARENT TRAP co-star Elaine Hendrix are thoughtfully layered into the narrative – not solely for fan service, but intelligently integrated for the story’s benefit. Of those players, Stephen Tobolowsky,  reviving his reoccurring role as the high school’s curt teacher, is a standout. He stays true to character, sassing and sentencing his students to grueling punishments.

The soundtrack stays on brand to the 2003 feature with modern era ra-ra riot pop girlie rock selections. We’re treated to Anna’s band Pink Slip playing their battle of the bands-winning song. Yet the new, original song sung solo by Lohan (“Baby”) is heartrending and tender, showcasing a maturity in sound and a grown-up voice taking the mic – a fitting allusion to Lohan’s own personal career trajectory.

Overall, this is a mixed bag. Though it contains uplift with its inevitable heartwarming resolution between mother and daughter by films’ end, the journey getting there is a challenge to endure.

Grade: 2 out of 5

FREAKIER FRIDAY opens in theaters on August 8.