Verdict: 3.5/5
It seems that all studios can come up with these days is rehashing the past, and this is evident with the release of ‘Freakier Friday’, the sequel to the Disney’s hit comedy ‘Freaky Friday’, both featuring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.
The original film has a big space in my heart, being put on at every sleep-over during my teens, and featuring some great one-liners that my friends and I still quote today.
Despite being released in 2003, its humour and theme of a dysfunctional mother and daughter relationship stands the test of time. This newest sequel however, while fun and entertaining, doesn’t hold half the power of the original.
The film reunites us with Anna and Tess, Anna now a single mother in her 30s and Tess a doting and supportive grandparent to her granddaughter Harper. Their lives are chaotic but seemingly functional; Anna juggling her job as a manager to up-and-coming music artists while raising her teenage daughter, and Tess trying to be as involved in her daughter and granddaughter’s lives as possible.
This balance is thrown out the window however, when Anna meets British chef Eric after Harper and Eric’s daughter Lily have a dispute at school. The pair quickly fall in love and are set to get married when the Coleman family curse strikes again, and each of the four women switch bodies with each other.
The film has the same fun, vibrant energy as the original, however with four key characters all in each other’s bodies I did find it difficult at times to remember who was really who. Curtis and Lohan reprised their roles with the same lively energy as before and were a joy to watch. New additions Julia Butters (Harper) and Sophia Hammons (Lily) played their polar opposite counterparts with ease, and all created a lovable family dynamic.
While sequels never really hit the mark for me, I have no major complaints about this one. Its reliance on nostalgia wasn’t overwhelming and it included enough new characters to feel like there was a point of difference from the original.
While I don’t feel it had the same zing as the original and there were no iconic one-liners, I did enjoy seeing Anna and Tess grow into this new period of their lives, and Jamie Lee Curtis will always have my heart.
See this movie at Event Cinemas Parramatta.
Madeline Dantier is the author of the Experience Parramatta series, hosted by Parra News.