Freaky Friday (2003)

The greatest movie ever!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Fifteen year old Anna Coleman is convinced that her mother, widowed psychiatrist Dr Tess Coleman, doesn't understand her… and to a degree she is right. Her mother believes that her daughter doesn't appreciate how hard adult life is… and she is also right. Things come to a head when Anna's band is due to take part in an important audition on the night of her mother's wedding rehearsal. This leads to a confrontation at a Chinese restaurant; seeing them arguing the owner's mother gives each of them a fortune cookie and says something in Chinese. As Anna and her mother read their fortunes they feel an earthquake, which nobody else in the restaurant appears to notice.The next day they are in for a shock; Anna is in her mother's body and her mother is in her body! After getting over the initial shock they must try to live each other's lives. At first they are somewhat horrified at how the other lives but as each sees the other's lives they grow to understand each other more.I watched the original 'Freaky Friday' as a child in the seventies and again a few years ago; having watched this new version I'd say it is a reboot rather than a remake… the premise is the same most key details have changed. The most obvious difference is that the daughter is noticeably older here which means that it is also aimed at a slightly older audience. The story is fun and provides plenty of laughs as well as a few potentially cringe inducing moments involving the boy Anna fancies. Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis do great jobs especially when their characters have swapped bodies and each must play somebody of a very different age. The supporting cast is pretty solid too; especially Mark Harmon who plays Tess's fiancé. Overall this fill is a lot of fun without featuring anything that is likely to offend.

Freaky Friday (2003): Dir: Mark Waters / Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Mark Harmon, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murray: I am not sure why the emphasis is on Friday since it is the dawn of the weekend. Promising remake faltered by cheap sets and simple plotting. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan play a mother and daughter duo whose bodies are switched due to a lame fortune cookie mishap. Curtis plays a psychiatrist who just completed a successful book. Lohan plays her rebellious daughter who plays in a band and serves detention often at school. They devour fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant while in the midst of bickering and they switch bodies. This is totally lame in its earthquake effect. Directed by Mark Waters who had already made the embarrassing Head Over Heels. This is not much of an improvement given the fact that Curtis and Lohan actually pull off convincing portrayal, but they are trapped in a formula driven showcase that is beneath them. Mark Harmon is wasted as Curtis's fiancé, and the women at the Chinese restaurant are lame. Harold Gould makes a wasted appearance as grandpa. Chad Michael Murray plays the boyfriend whom mother disapproves of. Remake that toys with one's speech and habits while also addressing age, responsibility and parental role models. Unfortunately it is a remake that is hardly freaky on any given day. Score: 3 / 10

This is one of those movies that had bad timing when it came to its release. An overworked mother and her daughter do not get along. When they switch bodies, each is forced to adapt to the others life for one freaky Friday. I thought this was cute and not bad. All of the fancy characters struggle against a system that has perpetuated falsehoods. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. I am not saying the film is a classic, but it was good enough.

There is such chemistry between Lohan and Curtis that I was sucked into this fantasy lock, stock and barrel. The two divas do not miss a trick when it comes time to convince us that they are indeed the other person trapped in a new body. Curtis winces, sashays, smirks, wails and gasps like a teenager, and Lohan captures every nuance of a beleaguered middle-aged professional struggling to maintain control In a situation that defies her every attempt to cover up one wacky trap after another. She has to let her daughter, who now inhabits her body, represent her as a psychotherapist, both in the office and on a TV talk show to discuss her book. The results are always hilarious, with Curtis acting exactly like a teenager attempting to navigate through session after session with her Mom's nutty patients. Equally wacky are the scenes of Lohan, with her mother's uptight personality trying to fit in as a high school student deflecting the amorous advances of Jake, the daughter's motorcycle-riding stud boyfriend. Underneath all these hijinks is the serious part of this, and every, switch movie, the journey that mother and daughter take that gives each a firsthand understanding of what makes the other tick. I'm a 58-year-old guy, not a fan of most chick flicks, funny or otherwise, but I was crying like a kid when Curtis and Lohan finally "got" each other and reached a point of mutual admiration and love that, unfortunately, seems to be possible only in movies. That's why they make them, why we see them, and why we are grateful when one of them turns out to be a timeless classic, like Freaky Friday.