Freakier Friday serves up Noughties nostalgia, predictable punchlines and all

The nostalgia pendulum swings heavy these days with sequels to movies from the late 90s to early Noughties, and the latest swing brings us Freakier Friday, the long, long, long awaited follow-up to 2003’s Freaky Friday (there’s a degrees of comparison joke in here, but I won’t make it until ‘Freakiest Friday’ is officially announced). 

And because it’s been such a long time coming, the new movie reminds us of a time almost forgotten — a time when movies could be under two hours, have stakes that the actors themselves are chewing on, and simply be a comedy offering plain fun.

Taking place decades after the events of the first film, Freakier Friday reintroduces us to psychiatrist Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan), the latter now herself a mother to teenage surfing rebel Harper (Julia Butters). 

With Anna having fallen in love and now betrothed to professional chef Eric (Manny Jacinto), Harper finds herself at constant odds with Eric’s own daughter and her future stepsister, Lily (Sophia Hammons, making her feature film debut).

With the entire family on edge leading up to the big day, and Harper and Lily at each other’s throats, things take a freaky twist when the two of them, Tess and Anna wake up to discover they have switched bodies, not unlike the events that befell Tess and Anna all those years ago. 

Now having to literally fill each other's shoes, Tess, Anna, Harper and Lily must navigate their situation while Harper and Lily conspire to end their parents’ upcoming wedding. That is if they don’t learn something about themselves, as well as Tess and Anna, in the process.

Freakier Friday is a throwback like we haven’t seen in a while. 

The biggest criticism you could level against it is that it hits the same beats of the 2003 film too much. In fact, its story and series of narrative events are completely identical to the 2003 film. 

As a result, the plot is completely predictable. The situations border on contrived, and any on-screen antagonism is limited to characters giving each other dirty looks and engaging in a food fight (yup, movies can still have those).

There’s also a strong sense that there were negotiations behind the scenes whether to bless the film with a theatre release or relegate it straight to Disney+. Directed by TV veteran Nisha Ganatra, the film is shot and edited conventionally, and the humour can be accused of being very “sitcom-ey”.

Here’s why you shouldn’t care, though: Freakier Friday is a funny movie. 

It fully capitalises on the chance to take the generation gap storytelling of the first movie and add a new facet to it. It helps that 2025, metaphorically, feels a full century apart from 2003. The differences between mothers and daughters, from Boomer to Gen Z, are put on full display and everyone on-screen seems to be having a really great time.

It gives this writer the greatest of pleasure to declare that we are witness to the Lohan renaissance. 

After nearly two decades of highly-publicised personal ordeals, Lindsay Lohan once again shines on the big screen with the charisma and star power that made her unmissable in the early 2000s with films such as Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. 

Her chemistry with Jamie Lee Curtis has proven to have a shelf life spanning decades. They are a joy to watch together, especially as Lohan gets to portray an approach to parenting that distinguishes itself from, and yet is the result of, Curtis’ approach.

That chemistry applies to the entire cast, probably due to it being pretty much the same cast from Freaky Friday. 

Mark Harmon and Ryan Malgarini return as Tess’s husband Ryan and son Harry, and of course we have the (apparently forever youthful) Chad Michael Murray playing Anna’s former boyfriend and present-day romantic foil, Jake. The new additions do a sterling job as well, particularly Manny Jacinto, who, like Mark Harmon before him, sets impossible standards for stepfathers in real life thanks to his likeability.

Freakier Friday doesn’t need to change the face and tone of comedy, and we are grateful that it doesn’t even try. 

The funny parts that needed to be present are there, and they precede some genuine, heartfelt insights about what it means to get along with the people you call family — culminating in a very satisfying watch. DM

Freakier Friday was released in cinemas on 8 August.

This review was first published on Pfangirl.