Come with me on a journey back to 2003, and answer me this: what was the magic sauce that made “Freaky Friday” work?
It was partly Jamie Lee Curtis, yes – that can’t be overstated. But the real magic of that movie is Lindsay Lohan. Curtis had the far more fun role, given the space to ham it up while embodying pure, unadulterated teenage angst. But finding a teenager who can adequately capture the energy of a middle-aged mom is the real trick of “Freaky Friday.” And Lohan rose to the task with confidence and control.
2003’s “Freaky Friday” ends with Tess (Curtis) and Anna (Lohan) resolving their problems and switching back into their respective bodies. Lucky for us, there will always be clashes between moms and their daughters. So “Freakier Friday,” a sequel written by Jordan Weiss and directed by Nisha Ganatra, seems timely without even trying too hard. The real question, then, is whether or not the production would be able to find young actors who have that same Lohan quality that allows them to be wise beyond their years. The answer is a resounding yes.
While not quite as tightly paced as its predecessor, “Freakier Friday” is a delight, and a lot of its success can be chalked up to its cast. Lohan and Curtis slide right back into an easy comedic chemistry, but it’s the two young stars that carry the show.
At the beginning of “Freakier Friday,” Anna is a working single mom, a music manager rather than the rock star she imagined she would be back in high school. She’s caught between work, her still overbearing mother, and teenage daughter Harper (Julia Butters), who would rather get up early to surf than get to school on time. When Anna meets single father Eric (Manny Jacinto), a whirlwind romance ends in an engagement six months later, and everything seems perfect – except for the fact that Harper and Eric’s daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons) hate each other.
The basis of any body-switching comedy is rooted in the power of opposing forces, and Harper and Lily couldn’t be more at odds – both a little too cool for school, but Harper in a casual, one-of-the-boys type way, and Lily in an uppity, British-prep-school type way. At the start, it seems like these two are the ones poised to switch, but the film makes the smart choice to have the girls switch with the adults: Anna with Harper, and Tess with Lily. This choice allows the film to keep the generational clash the franchise is built on, but also allows the girls to spend more time actually getting to know each other as they reach toward a common goal – breaking up their parents. “Freaky Friday” has always been a battle of the generations, but this time it’s also about extending a hand to your own.
We already knew that Curtis plays teen with gusto, and Lohan is extremely game when embodying Anna’s sarcasm-prone, awkward daughter – in one of the film’s best moments, Harper-as-Anna tries to be sexy in front of her former flame Jake (Chad Michael Murray), biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed and flipping her hair far too over-zealously for anyone in the general proximity’s safety. But the true testament to “Freakier Friday” is that Butters and Hammons can go toe-to-toe with the two vets physically and comedically – really, at the ripe old age of 16, there’s no reason Butters should be that good at business walking while saying things like, “My client needs me!”
As funny as “Freakier Friday” is, it’s a little more sentimental than the original film, and its emotional beats in the third act are probably its strongest selling point. For as much as mothers and daughters will always be clashing, they’ll also always be making up. And that’s an age-old story that’s always bound to make this daughter of a mother tear up.