More than 20 years after Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis walked in each other’s shoes in a rambunctious remake of the wholesome 1976 family comedy, three generations experience an identity crisis in a rip-roaring sequel directed by Nisha Ganatra.
By turns hilarious and heartfelt, Freakier Friday makes merry, as promised in the title, by magically transporting grandmother, daughter, granddaughter and high school frenemy into each other’s bodies during preparations for a wedding.
Oscar winner Curtis has a blast poking fun at herself as she pretends a fashion-forward, self-obsessed, sardonic Gen Z – essentially Cher from Clueless – is trapped inside her character’s “decomposing” Baby Boomer body and is suddenly confronted with knees that pop, deep crevices in her face and an unreliable bladder.
She snags the best one-liners – a sassy quip about Facebook is priceless – in an effervescent script written by Jordan Weiss that fully embraces the outlandishness of the four-way body swap but still manages to find moments of teary-eyed reconciliation.
Younger co-stars Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons confidently perform the heavy-lifting in these emotion-saturated heart-to-hearts.
Lead cast of the 2003 iteration of Freaky Friday reprise their roles – older and slightly wiser in the face of fantastical disaster – including Rosalind Chao as Chinese restaurant manager Pei-Pei and Stephen Tobolowsky as dry-witted high school teacher Mr Bates.
Therapist Dr Tess Coleman (Curtis) juggles recording her fledgling podcast, playing pickleball with husband Ryan (Mark Harmon) and supporting her record company executive daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan), who is about to marry widowed chef Eric (Manny Jacinto).
The nuptials will blend their two families, intensifying friction between Anna’s daughter Harper (Julia Butters) and Eric’s snobby daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons), who resents being dragged away from her old life in London.
Lightning strikes twice after an impromptu palm reading from kooky fortune teller Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer): “Change the hearts you know are wrong to reach the place where you belong!”
On the Friday before the wedding, Anna and Tess swap bodies with Harper and Lily respectively and chaos ensues.
Freakier Friday recaptures the carefully choreographed lunacy of Curtis and Lohan’s first out-of-body experience with a barrage of belly laughs and winning performances from the central quartet, supported by key female creatives behind the camera including editor Eleanor Infante, composer Amie Doherty, production designer Kay Lee and costume designer Natalie O’Brien.
Curtis was the standout of the 2003 picture and she’s even more delightfully unhinged in the sequel, playing up a wider age divide between her internal and external heroines.
Weiss’s script trades lightly in nostalgia, including a reunion for Anna’s band Pink Slip and an updated version of their song, Take Me Away.
Rock on!
RATING: 7.5/10
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