When I heard they were coming out with a spin-off of the iconic 2003 movie “Freaky Friday,” starring hit actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, I thought it was going to be a mess. “Freakier Friday” would be the third remake of the original 1976 film adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ novel, and from my experience, remakes are always worse than the original. 

However, after seeing multiple advertisements about the movie, I knew I had to give it a try to see if it lived up to my expectations, as the 2000s version was one of my favorite movies growing up. 

In the 2008 movie, Lohan plays the role of Anna Coleman, and Lee Curtis plays her hilarious, overbearing therapist mother. Anna was the kind of teenager who loved playing rock music and rebelling against her mother, until the built-up tension caused by this rebellion metastasized while she was eating a fortune cookie from a Chinese restaurant. When the mother and daughter switch places, humorous moments and witty one-liners highlighting the polarizing personalities of the mother-daughter duo are explored, making this movie a delight to watch. With the rebuilt connection, the two can reunite once again and revert to their former bodies.

“Freakier Friday” presents a unique twist: the rebellious teenage rockstar is now a single mother managing a famous pop star, while her mother attempts to connect with her granddaughter Harper (Julia Butters). Anna Coleman has a romantic meet-cute with Lily’s father, Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto), and after six months, they get engaged. Harper and Lily oppose their parents’ choices, fearing it will disrupt their lives and future plans. At Anna’s bachelorette party, the girls visit a palm reader, Madam Jen, who casts a curse that causes the grandmother and Lily to switch places, while Anna and Harper switch bodies, mirroring a concept from the 2008 version.

After this body switch, much chaos ensues. One of my favorite scenes was when Lily, the English fashionista, looks at her skin and cries, “My face feels like a Birkin bag that’s been left out in the sun to rot!” Lily is the most underrated character in the whole movie. Her tough background and exceptional acting skills (especially when Jamie Lee Curtis portrays her character) make her character have an engaging storyline. And although I worried at the beginning that having four different characters switch bodies would be hard to follow, the actors did an amazing job differentiating the characters’ personalities and highlighting their strengths and personal hurdles they needed to overcome. My only critiques are of the sometimes unrealistic high school depictions, which come across as cringeworthy, and the love interest, Eric Reyes, who sometimes seems bland and comparable to a walking glue stick. 

Overall, I thought this was a great adaptation that checked every box, bringing in both old and new actors from the previous movie, as well as newer, more relevant actors now, like Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who played the heartbroken pop star. If you have any desire to see this 1:50-minute movie, you should rush to see it while it’s still in theaters.

4/5 paws