The film opens with a daydreaming Anna (Lohan), now in her late thirties, tearing it up on the electric guitar. It immediately recalls 2003 when Lohan first played the rebellious teen and aspiring rock star. Then reality hits. <\/p>\n
This time, rebel Anna hasn\u2019t swapped bodies with her mother \u2013 she\u2019s become her mother. She\u2019s a single mum working a busy job as a music producer, having shelved her rock-star dreams to raise her teenage daughter Harper (Julia Butters). Picking up where the last film left off, Anna\u2019s mum Tess (Curtis) is still a successful therapist and author \u2013 though her latest foray into podcasting isn\u2019t exactly going as planned.<\/p>\n
The plot quickly sets up Anna\u2019s new romance with fellow single-parent Eric (Manny Jacinto). He\u2019s a charming British restaurateur who \u2013 much to Harper\u2019s dismay \u2013 happens to be the father of her high-school nemesis Lily (Sophia Hammons). Ironically, the couple\u2019s meet-cute in the principal\u2019s office is incited by the girls\u2019 feuding antics, including a science experiment that goes horribly wrong and an all-out food fight in the school yard.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The trailer for Freakier Friday.<\/p>\n
At Anna\u2019s bachelorette party, her and Tess are dragged into a palm reading by \u201cMadame Jen\u201d \u2013 a pushy but incompetent psychic and all-round grifter, comically played by SNL\u2019s Vanessa Bayer. Harper and Lily are drawn into a separate reading and given a mysterious prophecy. <\/p>\n
All four experience what feels like an earthquake, leading them to wake up with a rather unwelcome surprise: Anna and Harper have swapped bodies, as have Tess and Lily. Over the course of the film, Anna and Tess try to track down the elusive Madame Jen to undo the spell, while Harper and Lily use their new identities to sabotage their parents\u2019 wedding.<\/p>\n
While this ambitious four-person body swap is a little confusing at first (I often had to remind myself who was playing who), it hits its stride when the pairs go off on their respective capers. The concept is at its best when Harper and Lily (in Anna and Tess\u2019s bodies) make a disastrous attempt to seduce Anna\u2019s high school boyfriend (Chad Michael Murray), and when Anna and Tess in the teens\u2019 much younger bodies bond over their newfound love of e-scooters.<\/p>\n
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This time Anna\u2019s daughter Harper and her fianc\u00e9\u2019s daughter Lily are body-swapped too.
\n Disney<\/p>\n
As well as being \u201cfreakier\u201d than its 2003 predecessor, this sequel packs a bigger emotional punch by revisiting themes of grief and blended families. Newcomer Lily is the surprising emotional core of the film \u2013 a young girl grieving the loss of her mum, homesick for her life in London, and struggling to find her place in a new family. The most poignant moments come through her unlikely bond with Tess. <\/p>\n
That said, it\u2019s a curious omission that Anna (Lohan) \u2013 who also lost a parent when she was younger \u2013 doesn\u2019t share any meaningful moments with Lily. Curtis (as both Tess and Lily) does a lot of heavy lifting on this front.<\/p>\n
Pure nostalgia<\/p>\n
It could be argued that Freakier Friday didn\u2019t need to retread the first film\u2019s thematic ground at all. While the repetition does enable some degree of character development, it\u2019s hard not to wonder what bolder risks could have taken after 22 years.<\/p>\n
The film flirts with exploring teenage girls\u2019 relationships with their bodies, including an over-the-top mirror scene where the teens recoil in horror at their older faces (despite Lohan and Curtis looking amazing), though mostly settles for cheap \u201cold lady\u201d gags. <\/p>\n
Curtis groans about creaky knees, struggling to get off the floor and constantly needing to pee. These jokes feel out of place when she runs rings around her younger cast members and is undoubtedly the most dynamic presence in this film. At one point, Lily (in Tess\u2019s body) overuses a lip plumper to absurd effect \u2013 a moment that hints at satirising beauty standards in the age of Botox and fillers but doesn\u2019t dig much deeper than a surface-level punchline.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Chad Michael Murray returns as Jake for Freakier Friday.<\/p>\n
While Freakier Friday has some fun references to contemporary pop culture, from Love Island to The Great British Bake Off with a smattering of gen-Z lingo here and there, it is a self-aware throwback to noughties girlhood. The soundtrack features Britney Spears and the Spice Girls, Curtis rocks Baby Spice pigtails, and Lohan\u2019s pink-tint shades look like they could have teleported straight from 2003. <\/p>\n
Even Harper and Lily\u2019s scheme to derail the wedding feels like an intentional nod to Lohan\u2019s childhood film, The Parent Trap (1998) \u2013 a nod that\u2019s underscored by a cameo from Elaine Hendrix, who co-starred in the film with Lohan. <\/p>\n
Overall, the film delivers satisfying fan service, especially through the return of noughties heartthrob Murray, whose role is pure nostalgia for long-time fans.<\/p>\n
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