Title: Freakier Friday
Director: Nisha Ganatra
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons
Where To watch: Theatres Rating: **1/2
Some reunions are about warm hugs. Others are about handing your body over to someone else and hoping they don’t ruin it. Twenty-two years after their first mother-daughter switcheroo, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan return in Freakier Friday, and the magic crystal ball (this time hidden behind a soda machine) whirs back into life, only to find itself a little short on wattage.
Director Nisha Ganatra raises the stakes with a double swap: Anna (Lohan) switches with her daughter Harper (Julia Butters), while Tess (Curtis) trades places with Lily (Sophia Hammons), Anna’s soon-to-be stepsister. Madame Jen’s (Vanessa Bayer) bumbling spell sets the chaos in motion, as the film seamlessly blends slapstick comedy with family themes like grief, blended dynamics, and parental care.
The plot takes its own sweet time to get going, introducing every character in painstaking detail. But when everything finally falls into place, there’s a cosy Disney warmth in the chaos, even if the storyline sometimes feels like it’s trying too hard to arrange everyone perfectly, much like the challenge of organizing complicated wedding seating.
Freakier Friday: Actors’ Performance
Curtis remains the scene-stealer, hurling herself into pratfalls like a veteran stage comic. Lohan, in her first substantial theatrical outing in ages, dusts off her old comedic timing and adds a layer of seasoned composure. Their chemistry remains the film’s saving grace.
Julia Butters, all Gen Z sass and precocious comebacks, matches Lohan beat for beat, so much so that when they swap bodies, the comic friction is oddly muted. As for Hammons, her Lily arrives with a promising arsenal of posh-girl attitude, but the accent remains stuck after the swap, robbing Curtis of a potentially delicious transformation. Jacinto floats through with his usual charm, though he’s mostly there to react in bemused confusion.
Freakier Friday: Music and Aesthetics
Ganatra keeps the visual palette airy, sunlit, and unabashedly Disney; think pastel chaos meets Pinterest mood board. The soundtrack swings from ’80s rom-com throwbacks to inexplicable ’90s pub anthems, leaning heavily into the franchise’s kitsch appeal. There’s even a food fight, just in case the decade you grew up in didn’t already flash before your eyes.
A pleasant surprise is the absence of the 2003 film’s dated stereotypes; this swap gets its magic from a gloriously unconvincing psychic rather than questionable cultural tropes. Nostalgia is the true aesthetic driver here, right down to cameos that feel like Easter eggs for anyone who owned a CD Walkman.
Freakier Friday: FPJ Verdict
This sequel is like reheating last night’s biryani; it’s still tasty and satisfying, but it doesn’t have the same fresh, exciting flavor as when it was first made. The double-swap gimmick promises twice the comedy but delivers more gentle chuckles than belly laughs. The heart, however, is intact: by the end, prickly teenagers soften, parents reveal hidden dreams, and even the British snobbery mellows into sisterly affection.
The film may not redefine its genre, but for a couple of hours, it’s warm, fizzy, and just freaky enough to make you forget you’ve seen this trick before.
