Freaky Friday (G)
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This came out in December 1976 (in L.A.) and January 1977 in the rest of the U.S. It's based on a 1972 book I haven't read. And I'm really not sure whether I ever saw the movie before watching it in 2024, but I kind of doubt it. I've certainly seen body-swap movies before, maybe even a different iteration of "Freaky Friday", which has been remade a few times since this version came out. I'm sure a lot of people have fond memories of this movie, but it's not nostalgic to me at all, and watching it now, I thought it was mostly just okay. I enjoyed it more toward the end than for most of the earlier portion of the movie. It definitely has some funny parts. And I'm glad I've finally seen it, but it's hard for me to understand its level of popularity.
One day, a 13-year-old girl named Annabel (Jodie Foster) and her mother, Ellen (Barbara Harris), both wish they could switch places with each other. And the wish comes true, their minds swap bodies. Most of the film is about each of them discovering that the other one's life is much harder than they thought. I think Foster and Harris do a pretty good job of imitating each other's characters. And it was kind of fun to see John Astin as Annabel's father, but I don't think he was a very good husband to Ellen. Annabel also has a younger brother named Ben, and she has a crush on a boy named Boris (who seems to have a crush on Ellen). And... I don't know what else to say. It's all rather over-the-top comedy, but it's not bad.
Remade in 1995, 2003, and 2018