Freakier Friday has been the surprise of the summer as a slightly superfluous sequel to a fondly remembered noughties movie that genuinely impressed me.
Quite frankly, it’s far better than it has any right to be.
It had all the potential to be one of the many unnecessary follow-up films pumped out by Hollywood nowadays, a lazy cash grab attempting to capitalise on nostalgia and the carefully plotted comeback of its leading lady, Lindsay Lohan.
But instead, almost against the odds, it triumphs as a feelgood, genuinely funny movie that’s heavy on the self-awareness and balances fan service with a decent screenplay.
A lot of its success is also down to reuniting Jamie Lee Curtis and Lohan onscreen as a mother-daughter duo, their chemistry having lost none of its sparkle as their characters embark on a new phase together in their lives.
Naturally, Freakier Friday starts off by nicely mirroring the first film as Lohan’s Anna attempts to get her daughter Harper (Julia Butters) out of bed in time for school, with warnings of ‘prepare to be triggered’ that she can only have learned herself as the daughter of a therapist.
This proves nice fertile ground to mine throughout the movie, which screenwriter Jordan Weiss does with relish as the Coleman family looks to extend further, with Anna embarking on a romance with single dad Eric (Manny Jacinto), whose daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons) is an enemy of Harper’s.
There’s lots of ‘I hear you, can you hear us?’ exchanges to entertain, which does help swallow the slightly unrealistic development that the Anna we met in Freaky Friday would have chosen to become a single parent in her very early 20s, in order to already have a teenage daughter.
Freakier Friday’s biggest surprise is just how funny it actually is, for a film that could easily have become bogged down in cringy and cheesy American humour. There are several standout exchanges with supporting cast members, one of which leads to a unexpectedly brilliant rendition of Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping – not a sentence I ever imagined myself writing.
It’s also clear that Curtis and her fellow producers knew they were going to do this sequel properly as everyone returns from the first film, from Mark Harmon as Tess’s husband to Pink Slip bandmembers, Rosalind Chao as the woman whose fortune cookie caused the switch last time and even Anna’s former teacher Mr Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky).
Obviously there’s a big element of fan service in that sort of approach, but Freakier Friday also goes beyond that as a film even if we do, of course, still want to hear another version of the famous quote ‘make good choices!’ too.
This time around it’s Vanessa Bayer as dodgy (in the best way) psychic Madame Jen who facilitates the body swap, with Anna and Tess being trapped in the bodies of Harper and Lily, and vice versa.
Honestly, Curtis being a teen is the solid foundation that Freakier Friday is built upon, as she throws herself into it once more with gusto, screeching over how she’s ‘decomposing’. But there’s enough grounding in her performance that it’s not constantly turned up to a 10.
Lohan is also back to her best in the scenes too, playing off Curtis so well and showing off some masterful physical comedy chops in a scene where she’s trying to flirt with her former boyfriend Jake (Chad Michael Murray – redundant to the story but completely necessary for fans). Normally these kinds of capers can be painfully unfunny, leaving me stony-faced, but the balance is just right between being frantic and being measured.
The remain a fantastic double act, and director Nisha Ganatra knows just how to direct them.
Butters is also a star in the making, singing, acting and emoting quite touchingly as her mother when she’s faced with her relationship in jeopardy. Everyone is good in Freakier Friday, helped along by knowing exactly what kind of film it is, but it doesn’t mean they won’t stop you in your tracks occasionally with something sincere.
Fans of the original should also prepare for some pretty savage commentary pointed at ‘elder millennials’ and adults in general, everything from Facebook being ‘a database of old people’ to Lily and Harper’s best guest at what grown-ups talk about – ‘transitional lenses and John Meyer’. Even Coldplay isn’t safe.
Not everything is perfect for Freakier Friday – Hammons and Jacinto are playing British characters, and while they do a pretty decent job with the accents, you will sniff them out thanks to some misplaced vowels, as well as a glaring error in the screenplay regarding national sports. As Brits, we’re almost dutybound to be snippy about these things.
It’s also, as sequels often are, quite convoluted as it juggles such a sprawling cast between old and new faces. But it does a better job at that than many, again exceeding my expectations.
Was Freakier Friday necessary as a film? No. But was it fun? Hell yes.
Freakier Friday is in cinemas from Friday, August 8.
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