Freakier Friday, the sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday, reintroduces us to mother-daughter Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan). Having left her band Pink Slip when her daughter Harper (Julia Butters) was born, Anna is now a single-mother working as a music producer and manager to pop star Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). Tess, who is still married to Ryan (Mark Harmon), helps to raise Harper alongside transforming her work as a therapist and author into a podcast. At school, surfer chick Harper is clashing with new British classmate Lily Davies (Sophia Hammons), who is an aspiring fashion designer. When an incident in chemistry class forces Anna to meet Lily’s father Eric (Manny Jacinto), sparks fly. Six months later, they’re engaged but the soon-to-be stepsisters still despite each other. After a visit to fortune teller Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer) at Anna’s bachelorette party, Anna switches bodies with Harper, and Tess with Lily. In their new bodies, Harper and Lily set out to stop their parents from tying the knot.
Directed by Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn, The High Note) and written by Jordan Weiss (Dollface, Sweethearts), who developed with the story with Elyse Hollander, Freakier Friday contains pops of colour reminiscent of the original, but they mainly come from costume design which ranges from fun to questionable. The digital cinematography looks flat and overly bright, a problem amplified by its origins as a planned Disney+ streaming release. Shooting on film could have captured the nostalgic and textured vibrancy of the 2000s, but studios seem unwilling to shell out for its legacy sequels, leaving the visuals feeling fairly sterile. Like many modern films, Freakier Friday also struggles with integrating and satirising Gen Z culture. Too often, the humour feels forced, cringeworthy, or exaggerated. While there are some genuine laughs scattered throughout, much of the comedy leans into traditional American humour that I personally find grating.
Lohan shines as the now 36-year-old Anna. It’s always such a joy to see her on-screen. Lohan is physically committed, emotionally engaging, and brings warmth and humour, especially in portraying Harper seeing things from her mother’s perspective. Curtis is equally game, having fun embodying Lily in Tess’s body, and embracing physical comedy. The supporting cast fare well, too. Jacinto’s Eric is earnest and lovable, while Ramakrishnan does a remarkable job in portraying a heartbroken pop star, complete with a fitting original song.
Unfortunately, Lily is the weakest link. Hammons feels miscast with an unconvincing and out of place British accent—especially compared to her on-screen father. Perhaps it was intentionally exaggerated as part of the character wanting to stand out and feel more cultured, but it doesn’t work. Lily also feels the least developed despite having the biggest emotional arc of having lost her mother. While we get more emotionality from her later in the film, it doesn’t feel earned, plus it happens while Lily is stuck in Tess’s body, so we never get to see Hammons’ full potential. Butters, on the other hand, is a natural but is underused. Despite Harper and Lily dominating the screen time in Anna and Tess’s bodies, not much more is revealed about their characters beyond their one note characteristics. They didn’t even have the nerve to make Harper a lesbian.
Narratively, Freakier Friday has a lot to balance with the body-swapping of its four central characters. While some fans wanted to see Tess and Anna switch again, the chosen swaps make sense: they force Harper and Lily to work towards a common goal with the added fun of finally having some control over their lives in adult bodies, but their mission often falls flat. Curtis is kept central to the story via Tess being in Lily’s body, and Anna already understands her daughter, so Harper’s journey is about realising this. Yet the narrative still feels overstuffed. Many new sides characters—Chloe Fineman as a dancer teacher, X Mayo as the principal, and Satina Muha as an immigration officer—are clearly aiming for comic relief, but the script is overly concerned with trying to make every moment funny.
The film sprinkles in many callbacks to Freaky Friday, some organic while others contrived. A food fight sets up a detention scene with Stephen Tobolowsky returning as Mr. Bates. Cameos from Anna’s brother (Ryan Malgarini), Pei-Pei (Rosalind Chao), and her mother (Lucille Soong) are nice touches. Chad Michael Murray’s return as Jake is more than a cameo, arguably overstretched but still amusing in his lingering crush on Tess. Pink Slip members Maddie (Christina Vidal Mitchell) and Peg (Haley Hudson) reappear for a closing performance with Lohan and Butters, who perform a new song called “Baby.” Sadly, the updated rendition of “Take Me Away” is underwhelming compared to the original. It sounds more mature, but loses its magic by reworking the formerly iconic solo into something uninspired. ADR is occasionally noticeable in dialogue, but it benefits the musical sequences by letting everyone’s individual vocals shine clearly.
The original Freaky Friday remains endlessly rewatchable, with well-balanced humour, smooth pacing, and emotionally satisfying narrative beats. Freakier Friday, while heartfelt and entertaining, is bogged down by uneven pacing, exhausting set pieces, and a tendency to try too hard for laughs. But the film ends the same way the original does: by bringing tears to my eyes as the characters reach genuine empathy for one another. This is a fun but flawed sequel, suffering from the same issues plaguing many modern legacy sequels. It’s perhaps closer to achieving its original magic than others, but there are still so many avoidable problems. Still, Lohan and Curtis remain exceptional.
Freakier Friday is currently out in cinemas.
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