Freaky Friday (2003) Review

“Run fast”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When it comes to family growing together, the process ain’t easy at all. You don’t think so? Look at Freaky Friday.


PLOT


Inspired by a 1972 Mary Rodgers first adapted in 1976 & 1995 (and even 2018), the 2003 adaptation is a modern tale of the story. The film follows teen musician Anna Coleman who lives her psychiatrist mother Tess, and younger brother Harry (Ryan Malgarini). Tess is now engaged to another man named Ryan Volvo and their wedding is only two days away from taking place, but Anna hasn’t yet accepted him due to coping with the loss of her father three years prior. Although she has a band named Pink Slip, formed with her friends Peg & Maddie (Haley Hudson & Christina Vidal), but is constantly bullied by Stacey Winkhouse (Julie Gonzalo) and has a tough English teacher out of Elton Bates. Pink Slip has a public audition for the Wango Tango showcase, but it coincides the same day of Tess & Ryan’s wedding reception where she doesn’t know what to attend to more. When arguing at Pei Pei’s Chinese restaurant with her mom, the manager’s mother (Lucille Soong) gives the two fortune cookies for them to have and when they read their fortunes aloud, an earthquake occurs that only they feel. The following day, they wake up in different bodies; Anna wakes up her Tess’ body and her mom wakes up in her’s vice versa. As they keep this secret from their family, they try to go through the day with various challenges. While stuck in Anna’s body, Tess discovers how difficult Stacey is when she lands her detention and exposes Mr. Bates for taking past rejection so personal that he’s taking it out on her daughter. She also meets her daughter’s crush Jake who helps her finish a test Stacey foiled. As Tess, Anna counsels her mother’s patients, gets a makeover and avoid Ryan’s advances. During a talk show appearance to promote her mom’s book, she improvises into a wild romp since she never read it which ironically attracts Jake when he sees it. Still as Tess, Anna attends a parent teacher conference for Harry, where she finds out he provoked her so many times for attention due to admiring her greatly. When seeing Pei Pei (Rosalind Chao) again and explain their ordeal, she explains the fortune must come true, that an act of selfless love will help them go back to their original bodies. At the official wedding rehearsal dinner, Maddie & Peg try sneaking Anna out for the audition, unaware of the swap still. With Ryan under the loop as well, he gives Tess/Anna permission to go and tells Anna/Tess he wants her trust since he doesn’t intend to replace her dad, thus encouraging her mom to be watch the audition. With her help, she plays guitar offstage so that the audience believes her mom’s performance in her body. This works to the point of making the cut and impressing Jake who officially crushes on her instead of her mom. When returning to the dinner, they agree to postpone the wedding and just when Anna does a toast to accepting Ryan as family, her selflessness leads to both ladies getting their bodies back. With the wedding occurring the following day, Tess & Ryan become happily married and Anna performs with Pink Slip, getting her chance to kiss Jake who was invited. The film ends with Pei Pei preventing another body swap happening between Harry & his grandpa Alan (Harold Gould).


THOUGHTS


Body swap narratives are the hardest acting lessons in my opinion because you got to play two different characters and different the body language from costar who shares the role. It can be well executed drama like Face/Off, or a bonkers comedy like this. In this case, it is no problem being the latter because director Mark Waters and cowriters Leslie Dixon & Heather Hach makes sure this was totally fun to get through. That only becomes possible with two leads that not only have insane chemistry, but make each delivery memorable for the right reasons. Jamie Lee Curtis & Lindsay Lohan has lived on to best pairing you can ask for to the point where they're the reason this is the superior adaptation. It goes to how impressive they handle both roles and have us smiling. At one point, Lohan has that signature insecurity in growing up and switches to the desperation to be organized, whereas Curtis is able to go from self righteous to downright overwhelmed of all the sudden changes. It's not everyday you hear a lady call herself the Crypt Keeper and laugh so hard to this day. If you ask me, the core of the comedy goes to Anna pretending to be Tess because it's so ideal for any teen to take advantage of adulthood without consequence. Looking past the laughs, this is manly the best adaptation of the novel because it is on the nose in teaching viewers that a day in someone else's shoes like a loved one can give greater appreciation of them. This is the exact case of Anna & Tess because due to them being generations apart, it was a big challenge for them to understand each other. Tess forgot how hard high school was and Anna never understood how complicated adulthood was until seeing it firsthand. Predictably, it got them closer into understanding change can do good for family. Tess was always doing right by her kids, but wasn't really considerate when it came to finding love again. There's no doubt that all the love was in the air with Ryan as their relationship sparked from how they respect their work ethics, but never took the time to notice how Anna was dealing with it. Her daughter was coping through her calling that was music and didn't feel heard until time was taken to see how she never stopped pursuing her passion. From one scene in the climax, Mark Harmon seals the deal that Ryan is a real one for wanting to give her all the space she needed to accept him. As soon as she heard that, all the hate she was feeling towards him and her mom vanished as it should. And while her mom found love, fantasy became reality for her down the line. Chad Michael Murray was a delight as Jake because he shares the common teen angst he shares with her, but isn't too rebellious the way Tess would worry. Since he's unaware of the swap much like Ryan, he falls for Tess at first because he senses the passion & intelligence her daughter is all about and once he saw 'Anna' perform, he knew who his heart should follow, however the results occurred during the sequel. Besides, it was hella funny seeing Tess/Anna tackle him to avoid getting caught by Ryan. With all that being said, I don't doubt this family became much closer moving forward. This movie was a delight for the most part, but there were still a few things that caught me off guard upon re-watching for not making much sense. Like for instance, the only time I'm gonna pick a character's grammar in a film has to be how Anna doesn't paragraph space her 1984 essay. I mean that's guaranteed a failing paper off the bat and I know from personal experience. There is even a big continuity error where the sign says there are nine breakers only to show there's eight when Tess shuts off the power in the garage to punish Anna for her very bad day at school. The same can be said with how Anna's door is temporarily in frame when Tess had already removed it as also part of her punishment. Moving on, how is it a foul for Anna to strike Stacey in volleyball and the latter doesn't get struck for doing the same? I think the gym teacher has terrible bias or was too blind to notice a bully in action. And I know Pei Pei's mom means well in wanting both ladies to reforge their bond, but doing this against their will unaware of the stakes is on her and she should've been way more cautious about it. Then again, I'm wondering what would've happened if the ladies didn't even read the fortune in sync or at all because that likely would've not made the swap possible and the drama between them would've been worse. Hell if they didn't want to deal with any chaos, Anna could've called in sick for her mom's behalf at the very least. I do get it's part of the joke that Stephen Tobolowsky makes a sore loser out of Mr. Bates that he is too harsh of a teacher on Anna, but he is definitely counterintuitive in wanting to grade students based on how to describe the character Hamlet. For any student, that is the most complicated character in literature to describe in any shape or form and Anna's classmates would be just as screwed as she would without Tess being in her body. And even without the body swap, it's kinda crazy Tess forgot about Harry's parent-teacher conference. If her phone blows up all day for wedding/work related calls, I'm surprised Anna didn't get a reminder call about that. Also in all seriousness, what are the goddamn odds for Anna/Tess to pass by Ryan while hitching a ride from Jake? It should be slim, but it feels high since it happened. Hell, Jake is a little stupid to try to win Tess over the night before the wedding because this is far from a rom com to make that possible. He's even lucky to be invited to the wedding at the last minute after that insanity he's half responsible for. Lastly, Pei Pei should've not even brought her mom to catering the wedding after what had just happened to the family and it's crazy how not even that was able to stop a sequel from happening. Other than that, 2003's Freaky Friday is still worthwhile for generations of families to watch together due to ongoing relatable vibes that becomes all the more heartwarming. If those are the ideal family comedies you prefer, check this out.