Movie Review: The body-swappers are back! Lohan, Curtis return for chaotic sequel ‘Freakier Friday'

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

It's a tale as old as time — or at least, a tale Hollywood loves to tell again and again: Body-swapping. It's magical. It's comical. It carries heartwarming messages about walking in another's shoes, and learning about oneself along the way.
So it's hardly surprising that 'Freaky Friday,' the 2003 version of the 1972 Mary Rodgers novel starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, was a hit. Lohan was endearing and charismatic as an appealing, mildly turbulent teenager, and Curtis was a comic hoot as her control-freak therapist mom.
And while there were a few misfires — the stereotypical Asian representation has aged badly — the film was powered by an easy chemistry between the two stars. So why not revisit the story in 2025? Sequels are often made for far less compelling reasons.
The chief weakness of 'Freakier Friday' — which brings Curtis and Lohan back for an amiable, often joyful and certainly chaotic reunion — is that while it hews overly closely to the structure, storyline and even dialogue of the original, it tries too hard to up the ante. The comedy is thus a bit more manic, and the plot machinations more overwrought (or sometimes distractingly silly).
Then there's the double body-swapping. Because one major swap isn't enough, here we have two sets of swappers — a quixotic quartet of lives disrupted during the lead-up to, yes, another wedding! The problem is that sometimes, it's actually hard to keep track of who's inhabiting whom, and therefore why they're doing what.
Not to say that 'Freakier Friday,' directed with gusto by Nisha Ganatra, doesn't have moments of comic glee. I'll admit to laughing out loud — with everyone else older than 30 near me — when two teens were trying to locate an adult contact and one of them pulled up Facebook, explaining: 'It's like a database of old people!' Touché, guys.
These 'youngsters' are actually Lohan and Curtis, playing ninth-graders trapped in adult bodies. Before we get to that, though: We begin 22 years after we last saw Lohan's Anna, playing electric guitar at her mom's wedding. Now a single mom herself with a job managing a young pop star, she's trying to get her daughter up for school. Harper (the excellent Julia Butters) is — surprise! — an appealing, mildly turbulent teenager. And just like Anna two decades ago, she keeps people out of her bedroom. 'Prepare to be triggered!' Anna yells before barging in. (The dialogue has been duly updated to the present time.)
Driving to school drop-off, Anna is joined by her mom, Tess (Curtis), who has stylish gray hair now and is still a practicing therapist, podcaster and author whose latest topic is 'Rebelling with Respect.' Dropping Harper off, Anna calls out 'Make good choices!' — just what mom Tess used to say, natch.
At school, Harper butts heads with transfer student Lily (Sophia Hammons), a budding fashion designer who hails from Britain and is very snooty. Anna is called to see the principal. There, she meets Lily's dishy chef dad Eric (Manny Jacinto), and the two flirt so intensely, the principal herself makes them a dinner reservation.
All it takes is one cute dating montage, and poof, Anna and Eric are engaged. But things are still bad between Harper and Lily, whose animosity triggers a weirdly violent, all-school food fight on bake sale day. But they all have a bachelorette party to attend. There, a wacky fortune-teller and barista and business-card maker — Vanessa Bayer, in a cameo that perhaps, no definitely goes on too long — reads their palms. And then the earth starts shaking.
'Freaky' fans know what happens next. The four awaken the next morning, each inhabiting someone else. Anna is Harper. Tess is Lily. Harper is Anna. Lily is Tess. We'll be testing you on this later!
Seriously, it's easy to lose the thread. Also, one wonders: why doesn't Lily's British accent travel with her to Tess's body? If Curtis suddenly had a British accent, the pairing would make a lot more sense.
Anyway, they go about their days. Lily, in Tess' body, plays pickleball awkwardly with husband Ryan (Mark Harmon is back, in a thankless part). Harper, in Anna's body, goes to a pre-wedding tango lesson with Eric, with disastrous results. Meanwhile Anna and Tess, in their teen bodies, feast on junk food with impunity. 'I haven't eaten real dairy since the Bush administration,' one says.
Curtis, aka Lily, gets her best moment in a drugstore, when her hubby asks her to get supplies from the 'senior' aisle, and she stockpiles everything from adult diapers to enemas. Lohan's at her comic best when, as Harper, she tries to flirt the way she thinks her mother would. She's flirting with Jake (Chad Michael Murray) — yes, the hunky guy from the original — and her flirting is so weird, Jake thinks she's having a stroke.
It all barrels toward a conclusion that we won't spoil. Will the wedding be derailed by the efforts of Lily and Harper? Will that derailment be temporary? Will the sisters-to-be reach an understanding? Will Lohan get to play the electric guitar? Will everyone grow to appreciate each other?
That last question, we can answer. Of course they will. Whoever they are, and whatever they just did.
'Freakier Friday,' a Walt Disney Studios release, has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association 'for thematic elements, rude humor, language and some suggestive references.' Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.