Twenty-two years after Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis first swapped our bodies within the teenager vintage Freaky Friday, the loved duo returns. This time there’s two times the chaos in an bold four-person physique switch comedy dripping in noughties nostalgia. This sequel effectively recaptures the unapologetic girlish silliness that made the primary movie so loved.
The timing couldn’t be higher. Curtis is contemporary from her Oscar win for The whole thing In all places All at As soon as, whilst Lohan is in the middle of her romcom renaissance in Netflix films like Falling For Christmas (2022), Our Little Secret (2024) and Irish Want (2024).
The movie opens with a having a pipe dream Anna (Lohan), now in her overdue thirties, tearing it up at the electrical guitar. It in an instant recollects 2003 when Lohan first performed the rebellious teenager and aspiring rock superstar. Then fact hits.
This time, rebellion Anna hasn’t swapped our bodies together with her mom – she’s develop into her mom. She’s a unmarried mum operating a hectic task as a track manufacturer, having shelved her rock-star goals to lift her teenage daughter Harper (Julia Butters). Choosing up the place the closing movie left off, Anna’s mum Tess (Curtis) remains to be a a success therapist and creator – although her newest foray into podcasting isn’t precisely going as deliberate.
The plot temporarily units up Anna’s new romance with fellow single-parent Eric (Manny Jacinto). He’s an enthralling British restaurateur who – a lot to Harper’s dismay – occurs to be the daddy of her high-school nemesis Lily (Sophia Hammons). Satirically, the couple’s meet-cute within the foremost’s place of work is incited by way of the ladies’ feuding antics, together with a science experiment that is going horribly unsuitable and an all-out meals combat within the faculty backyard.
The trailer for Freakier Friday.
At Anna’s bachelorette birthday celebration, her and Tess are dragged right into a palm studying by way of “Madame Jen” – a pushy however incompetent psychic and all-round grifter, comically performed by way of SNL’s Vanessa Bayer. Harper and Lily are drawn right into a separate studying and given a mysterious prophecy.
All 4 revel in what seems like an earthquake, main them to get up with a slightly unwelcome wonder: Anna and Harper have swapped our bodies, as have Tess and Lily. Over the process the movie, Anna and Tess attempt to monitor down the elusive Madame Jen to undo the spell, whilst Harper and Lily use their new identities to sabotage their oldsters’ marriage ceremony.
Whilst this bold four-person physique switch is a bit of complicated in the beginning (I continuously needed to remind myself who used to be enjoying who), it hits its stride when the pairs pass off on their respective capers. The concept that is at its absolute best when Harper and Lily (in Anna and Tess’s our bodies) make a disastrous try to seduce Anna’s highschool boyfriend (Chad Michael Murray), and when Anna and Tess within the teenagers’ a lot more youthful our bodies bond over their newfound love of e-scooters.
This time Anna’s daughter Harper and her fiancé’s daughter Lily are body-swapped too.
Disney
In addition to being “freakier” than its 2003 predecessor, this sequel packs a larger emotional punch by way of revisiting subject matters of grief and combined households. Newcomer Lily is the unexpected emotional core of the movie – a tender lady grieving the lack of her mum, homesick for her existence in London, and suffering to search out her position in a brand new circle of relatives. Essentially the most poignant moments come via her not likely bond with Tess.
That stated, it’s a curious omission that Anna (Lohan) – who additionally misplaced a guardian when she used to be more youthful – doesn’t proportion any significant moments with Lily. Curtis (as each Tess and Lily) does a large number of heavy lifting in this entrance.
Natural nostalgia
It might be argued that Freakier Friday didn’t want to retread the primary movie’s thematic floor in any respect. Whilst the repetition does permit a point of personality building, it’s arduous to not marvel what bolder dangers will have taken after 22 years.
The movie flirts with exploring teenage ladies’ relationships with their our bodies, together with an over-the-top reflect scene the place the teenagers draw back in horror at their older faces (regardless of Lohan and Curtis having a look superb), although most commonly settles for inexpensive “old lady” gags.
Curtis groans about creaky knees, suffering to get off the ground and continuously wanting to pee. Those jokes really feel misplaced when she runs rings round her more youthful solid contributors and is surely probably the most dynamic presence on this movie. At one level, Lily (in Tess’s physique) overuses a lip plumper to absurd impact – a second that hints at satirising good looks requirements within the age of Botox and fillers however doesn’t dig a lot deeper than a surface-level punchline.
Chad Michael Murray returns as Jake for Freakier Friday.
Whilst Freakier Friday has some a laugh references to fresh popular culture, from Love Island to The Nice British Bake Off with a smattering of gen-Z lingo right here and there, this is a self-aware throwback to noughties girlhood. The soundtrack options Britney Spears and the Spice Women, Curtis rocks Child Spice pigtails, and Lohan’s pink-tint sunglasses seem like they might have teleported immediately from 2003.
Even Harper and Lily’s scheme to derail the marriage seems like an intentional nod to Lohan’s youth movie, The Mother or father Entice (1998) – a nod that’s underscored by way of a cameo from Elaine Hendrix, who co-starred within the movie with Lohan.
General, the movie delivers pleasurable fan provider, particularly during the go back of noughties heartthrob Murray, whose position is natural nostalgia for long-time lovers.
On the lookout for one thing just right? Minimize during the noise with a in moderation curated number of the most recent releases, are living occasions and exhibitions, immediately for your inbox each fortnight, on Fridays. Join right here.
