tek's rating: ½

Freaky Friday (PG)
Disney Movies; Disney Wiki; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Disney+; Google Play; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube

This is a 2003 remake of the 1976 film of the same name. I didn't see it until 2024 (on Friday the 13th). I enjoyed it more than the original, but still didn't like it quite as much as a lot of people did.

Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) is a fifteen-year-old girl who is in a garage band called Pink Slip with a few friends (Maddie and Peg and some guy). Her mom, Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a widowed psychiatrist who is about to marry a man named Ryan (Mark Harmon), who I think is like her publisher or something. (Tess has recently published a book.) Anna also has a younger brother named Harry, who causes her no end of irritation, but when she reacts to the things he does, Tess blames Anna for starting it. Anna also has a former friend named Stacey, who is now an enemy. And she has a teacher named Mr. Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky) who is always unfair to her, for a reason which is revealed later in the movie. Anna also has a crush on an older boy named Jake (Chad Michael Murray). One day, Pink Slip gets a chance to audition for a gig that would be their first performance, but unfortunately, the audition would be on the same night as Tess and Ryan's wedding rehearsal, which Tess doesn't want her to skip. Tess and Anna get into a heated argument while at a Chinese restaurant which I guess is run by a woman named Pei-Pei (Rosalind Chao). Pei-Pei's mother (Lucille Soong, whom I mainly know from Fresh off the Boat) intervenes in their argument by giving them each a fortune cookie. When they read the fortune, they experience an earthquake that no one else notices. The next morning, they wake up in each other's bodies.

And, well, they have to spend some time living each other's life, and coming to realize that they each had a harder life than the other realized. Hilarity ensues. Tess, in Anna's body, begins to get closer to Jake, until she does something that upsets him. Then Jake becomes infatuated with Anna in Tess's body. It was pretty cringe seeing a teenage boy (I actually have no idea exactly how old he was supposed to be) hoping to pursue a romance with someone Tess's age, though I expect it would have been even worse if the same thing happened with swapped genders. Anyway, a lot of stuff happens that I don't want to spoil, but ultimately, Anna comes to accept Ryan as an impending stepfather, and Pink Slip performs at the audition. And after a selfless gesture from Anna, she and her mom switch back to their own bodies with a new appreciation of each other. And Tess and Ryan get married.

For the most part I found the movie amusing and otherwise entertaining. I liked the main characters, and I found bits of the movie somewhat touching. So, yeah... it was good, and I'm glad I've finally seen it. I don't think I'll ever feel the need to see it again, though.

There's going to be a sequel in 2025, which I would like to see.


comedy index