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.
“I Want You Back,” a new rom com starring Jenny Slate and Charlie Day and now streaming on Amazon, begins with dueling break-ups.
Noah (Scott Eastwood) and Emma (Slate) have been together for 18 months. She’s comfortable and content. He’s an A-Type on the hunt for the next thing in life, who happens to appear in the form of Ginny (Clark Backo), the statuesque owner of a local pie shop.
Peter (Day) and Anne (Gina Rodriguez) are six years in when she blindsides him. He’s too complacent, she says as she dumps him. She wants a bigger life, one filled with excitement and she thinks she’ll find that with local theatre director Logan (Manny Jacinto).
Emma and Peter are dumped and devastated.
This is a rom com, so it is inevitable that the grieving Emma and Peter will meet cute. Turns out, they work in the same office tower and spend time in the same stairwell, crying and longing for their exes. When they finally meet, she is smeared with mascara, he has the toilet paper he used to wipe away his tears stuck to his face. They respond to each other’s pain and begin a platonic friendship.
They sing “You Oughta Know” at karaoke, get drunk and attempt to make one another feel better. “Dying alone is not so bad,” Emma says. “Having someone to watch you die is embarrassing.” They go to the movies, have lunch, lurk on their exes’ Instagram and hatch a plan. Emma will infiltrate Anne and Logan’s relationship as Peter makes friends with Noah and Ginny, both trying to drive a wedge in the new relationships. “They might not know they should be with us,” Emma says, “with all these new shiny people around.”
“It’s like ‘Cruel Intentions,” Peter says, “but sexier.”
“How is it sexier?”
“It isn’t.”
The chemistry Slate and Day share, as actors and characters, (NOT A SPOILER, JUST THE WAY ROM COMS WORK) make it clear who should be partnered with who by the time the end credits roll. This is, after all, a rom com so the outcome isn’t a secret. It’s all about the journey, how the two most likeable characters in the movie will finally find their happily ever after. “I Want You Back” offers up a fun journey that travels ground most rom coms have voyaged before, but does so with laughs and heart.
There are hijinks and farce—a proposed three-way tryst, a very uncomfortable hiding spot and unrequited love—but the clichés of Katherine Heigl-style rom coms are blunted with edgy humor topped off with a helping of romance. The movie allows Slate and Day to bring their unique comic gifts to the material while keeping it on the rom com straight and narrow.
“I Want You Back” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the eager cast keeps the predictable parts of the story interesting and very funny.
