Freakier Friday movie review: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis film raises racial-ethnic-mix bar, serves a bit of Karan Johar
In the previous one, Dr Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and teenage daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan) are at loggerheads by the former's impending marriage, with the latter not thrilled at the prospect of a stepdad. This time around, it is the turn of former rocker-present celebrity events manager Anna's Gen Z daughter Harper (Julia Butters) to be unhappy at the former falling hard for single hot dad Eric (Manny Jacinto), who is in possession of a daughter of his own, the very British Lily (Sophia Hammons), said girl being satisfactorily snooty and stand-offish, and therefore Harper's enemy number one.
Confusion gets seriously confounded when the swap this time is split four ways, with the foursome becoming recipients of each other's bodies. And innermost secrets. It took me a while to figure out who is whom, and I will let you do the discovering for yourself, but while all of this is going on, and fun and games ensue, a couple of things do rise to the surface.
Even all those years back, the fact that a Chinese restaurant and fortune cookies and a Chinese woman was responsible for the body-swap, felt stereotyped: you know, these exotic slit-eyed Easterners and their peculiar ways, who could even magic up an earthquake, the last of which is the tipping point in the new film too.
It must be noted that this sequel feels as if director Nisha Ganatra, Canadian-American-of-Indian-descent, wants to address, and rectify, some of those elements in the choice of the ensemble cast. The soothsayer this time is an American woman (Vanessa Bayer). The very smooth Jacinto is a Philippines-born Canadian. And Canadian actor-of-Tamil-descent Maitreyi Ramakishnan, who broke out with 'Never Have I Ever', gets a sizeable supporting role, which definitely raises the racial-ethnic-mix bar.
There are a few lines revolving around look-ism, and age-ism which you might take exception to, but the whole thing is kept so good-natured, with a couple of moving moments thrown in for good measure about how 'family is everything' (how very Karan Johan and Bollywood of them), that you find yourself not wanting to nit-pick.
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Some of the returning faces include the handsome Mark Harmon, having greyed nicely, and Chad Michael Murray — all those flowy staw-coloured locks and motorcycle muscles — leaves a mark as the younger guy who still has the hots for the older Curtis. Butters proves she wasn't a one scene wonder (remember the precocious young thing from 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood'?), and both Jacinto and Hammons carry off their parts well.
But finally, everything comes back to the pair who are the reason we show up this time too. LiLo, long having left her Mean Girl avatar behind, strums up the guitar as vigorously, but the real star turn is reserved for the Grandma-Mom-Celebrity Author character played by Curtis, who is having herself a whale of a time, everything everywhere all at once.
Freakier Friday movie cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Mark Harmon, Maitreyi Ramakishnan, Vanessa Bayer, X Mayo, Santina Muha, Chad Michael Murray
Freakier Friday movie director: Nisha Ganatra
Freakier Friday movie rating: 3 stars
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