Set 22 years after the 2003 hit comedy Freaky Friday, Freakier Friday plops us back into the lives of mom-and-daughter duo Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Anna (Lindsay Lohan). We are given a very truncated summary of what their fictional selves have been up to: Anna is a “single mom by choice” (emphasized twice) and Tess has been her mama-bear support as the two women co-parent Anna’s teenage daughter Harper (Julia Butters). Tess is a successful psychiatrist, Anna is now a music studio executive, and Harper is, well, a teen who cuts class to surf.
Within the first few minutes, Anna meets a cute single dad named Eric (Manny Jacinto) who happens to be the dad of Harper’s snooty classmate nemesis Lily (Sophia Hammons). There’s a quick six-month montage and the adults are engaged, soon to be married, while the teens bicker, snipe, and sulk at the idea of looming stepsisterhood. One bachelorette party later—featuring a shifty, not particularly skilled psychic named Madame Jen—and bodies are swapped… but this time it’s the two teens swapping with Tess and Anna. The still-cranky teens, despite being in their new, alarmingly not-right older bodies, are now set on breaking up the wedding but only have a couple days to do it.
Even though the major studios continue to desperately mine their content for remakes, reboots, and endless sequels, I have to admit it’s kind of fun to revisit characters decades later after we’ve actually had time to miss them. You can’t help but think how much has happened to Curtis and Lohan in real life since the last film: Jamie has an Oscar and a career resurgence. Lindsay hit tabloid saturation and very public growing pains, but has reemerged looking healthy and happy. Seeing them reunited is honestly a treat, reminding us immediately that they are both great at physical comedy. They easily reignite their chemistry even when some of the jokes don’t land (how many times can Tess screech tired age jokes?). There is a sweet affection between the two that is nice to see.
Butters and Hammons pretty much have to play the responsible adults in the room, so are given less to work with. And I have to say, having four characters swapping bodies gets a little confusing, especially because the teenagers don’t get much of a chance to make an impression before being swapped into the more hammy elder hosts.
Fans of the original will be delighted to spot familiar major and even minor characters this time around. Chad Michael Murray returns as Jake, the cute boy from the original who is now a grown-ass hot man, still smitten with Tess. Mark Harmon shows up in an almost blink-and-you’ll-miss him appearance as Tess’ husband Ryan. And perhaps the most pleasing cameo, there’s character actor Stephen Tobolowsky (still) hosting high school detention (Anna exclaims, “You’re still here???”).
I do want to give a shout-out to Vanessa Bayer as Madame Jen, the questionably-talented physic who releases the whole body-swap mess during the bachelorette party palm reading. Bayer’s awkward, almost chain-of-thought delivery and timing made me cackle, right down to her final moment in a coffee shop. Freakier Friday, for the most part, is mildly amusing, but Bayer’s moments were comic gold.
