FREAKIER FRIDAY: 3 ½ STARS. “Curtis is the MVP, embracing her inner teen.”
SYNOPSIS: In the popular 2003 fantasy comedy “Freaky Friday” Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan played Tess and Anna, a mother daughter combo who switched identities. “Mom,” said Anna in Tess’s body, “you have to let me live my own life!” Twenty-two years later they’re back at it in the sequel, “Freakier Friday.” This time around they double the body swap chaos as Tess and Anna switch identities with their step granddaughter and teenage daughter respectively.
CAST: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Mark Harmon. Directed by Nisha Ganatra.
REVIEW: More sweet and nostalgic than funny, “Freakier Friday” milks the body-swapping premise for a few laughs, mostly courtesy of Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan who are clearly having a blast revisiting this material. There are a handful of big laughs, but Canadian director Nisha Ganatra is more interested in plucking your heartstrings than tickling your funny bone.
The gimmick that fueled the 2003 film is in place, but since this is a direct sequel, it’s been amplified. Just as “Jurassic World” upped the ante with the genetically engineered super-dinosaur Indominus Rex, and “Age of Ultron” introduced the massive, titular CGI villain, “Freakier Friday” increases the story’s scale by doubling up on the body switching—Tess Coleman (Curtis) switches bodies with her soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons), and Anna Coleman (Lohan) switches bodies with her daughter, Harper (Julia Butters). But like a stick of Spearmint gum—double the flavor and double the fun—instead of diluting the emotional stakes, as is so often the case when sequels get bigger and louder, the extended swapping amplifies the film’s message of learning about others by walking a mile in their Manolos.
It’s a blended-family journey of discovery, of getting a deeper understanding of one another, crammed into a story fed by a hodge-podge of misunderstandings and slapstick. Curtis is the MVP, embracing her inner teen, deftly playing a pouty Lily for much of the film’s running time. “I’m bloody decomposing,” she shrieks, as teenager Lily sees herself as Tess for the first time.
Lohan is more restrained. Her moments of physical comedy are overshadowed by Curtis’s uninhibited work, but she conjures up a misty sentimental feel in the film’s more heartfelt scenes.
The intergenerational jabs provide most of the humor. “I bent down and didn’t toot,” says an amazed Tess from her young body. Add to that some updated Pickleball and crypto gags, and you have an amiable family comedy that, while predictable, occasionally confusing and definitely overlong at 1 hour and 51 minutes, preserves enough of the original movie’s fairy tale charm to sell its story of fantasy and unconditional love.
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