Freaky Friday
Freaky Friday
Mother and daughter bicker over everything -- what Anna wears, whom she likes and what she wants to do when she's older. In turn, Anna detests Tess's fiancé. When a magical fortune cookie switches their personalities, they each get a peek at how the other person feels, thinks and lives.
slider7420 reviewedAugust 28, 2025
This review may contain spoilers.
Without burying the lead - If you like Freaky Friday (in any of its incarnations), you are going to like Freakier Friday. It is difficult to say that this is not a rehashed concept because we've seen it many times, but I don't feel like that was really a concern of this movie, so we can eliminate that as a criticism.
It's been 22 years since Anna (Lindsay Lohan) and Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) have had their body swap and learned the lessons that allow them to undo the switch. So one could easily think, "Why would we need to see this again?" However, in this case, the swap has an added layer of complexity, an added twist if you will. Anna is an adult now and has a daughter of her own, Harper (Julia Butters). Tess is living with them, so we have three generations of women living under one roof, and they could not be more different from each other. To add to this chaotic dynamic, Anna has recently met Eric (Manny Jacinto), and this relationship evolves quickly, to the point where they are going to get married. Manny also has a daughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), who incidentally is in the same class as Harper - and they cannot stand each other - and they are about to become sisters.
Here is where the new layer of swap complexity comes into play. Not only are Anna and Tess going to swap - instead of with each other, they swap with the daughter and granddaughter - Anna and Harper are one swap and Tess and Lily are the other.
In the first act, they keep you guessing on who is going to swap with whom, and when it happens, the scene is hilariously chaotic. I felt that Jamie Lee Curtis had the most fun in this scene as the teenage diva Lily wakes up in a grandmother's body, and the meltdown is hilariously real! If I were to levy one criticism about this is that it is a bit difficult to follow who inhabits whom for a short while, but once you get it straight it is a non issue.
This incarnation of the swap gives both Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan the freedom to really exercise their comedy chops playing two teenage girls, who now see an opportunity as adults and run a "reverse parent trap" to keep their parents from getting married, and thus (perceivingly) ruining their lives. Since they have to work together, they evolve from enemies to frenemies, and ultimately come to understand each other. Curtis and Lohan also get some meaty emotional scenes as the understanding of Harper and Lily's characters deepen.
Conversely, you have the adults Anna and Tess in the teenage girls' bodies who are on a mission to get the swap reversed but are often distracted by the prospect of reliving their youth. This provides more comic fodder but also highlights the stand out performance of Julia Butters who is initially an angsty teen who now gets to play the mature adult (at times). It really highlighted Butter's talents as an actress and I hope we see more of her on screen in the future.
There were lots of surprises for me personally seeing that they managed to get all of the original cast members (Chad Michael Murray (Jake), Mark Harmon (Ryan), Christina Vidal Mitchell (Maddie), Haley Hudson (Peg), Lucille Soong (Pei-Pei's mom), Stephen Tobolowsky (Mr. Bates), and Rosalind Chao (Pei-Pei) all make appearances), but the biggest surprise for me was the addition of Maitreyi Ramakrishnan's character of Ella. I love Maitreyi Ramakrishnan from the series "Never Have I Ever", and she was a welcome addition to this cast!
Overall, this is a solid comedy that has some well executed emotional beats that tie this movie together and make it a worthy successor to the original film. I was saddened by how empty the theater I was in was, but I am hoping word of mouth brings in more audiences, though I fear many will simply wait for it to drop on streaming services.