Freakier Friday, the sequel to one of the films that put a young Lindsay Lohan on the map, is a member of the club whose trailer short-changes the movie’s true potential… even if the trailer tells no lies.

Technically the seventh entry in Disney’s library of the Freaky Friday franchise — yes, all were made by Disney, mostly for television — this adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel is a continuation of the franchise’s most popular entry: the 2003 adaptation, starring Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

It is now 22 years since the body swap between single mother Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis), a psychologist, and her rebel-musician teenage daughter Anna (Lohan). Anna is now also a single mother to a rebel teenager, Harper (Julia Butters), who sneaks away to surf every morning.

Harper has a nemesis at school: a British snob named Lily (Sophia Hammons) whom the teacher assigns as her chemistry class partner. Imagine the horror — and the obligatory chemistry-experiment-blowing-up-the-class joke — when their parents are brought in by the principal… and the two fall in love.

Freakier Friday isn’t as ‘freakier’ as the title suggests but, for the most part, it doesn’t disgrace the memory of its predecessor

The dad (Manny Jacinto) is a really nice guy, and the romance between them is real — and then comes the moment of the film’s premise: Anna’s non-freaky, non-sleazy, bachelorette party.

A palm-reading by a zany struggling psychic who wears many many hats (Vanessa Bayer) prompts the bodies to switch souls once again. This time, though, the switches are slightly confusing: Anna and Harper switch, as per the main trope, but so do Lily and Tess, which doesn’t play that well into the story.

Now don’t get me wrong: screenwriter Jordan Weiss (based on a story by Elyse Hollander and Weiss) does milk the situations till the last comedic drop — the bulk of the work, again, falls on to Lohan and Lee-Curtis’ shoulders — but they also feel forced, especially when it comes to Tess’ and Lily’s parts.

Although director Nisha Ganatra does a fine job keeping the vibe of the 2003 movie intact — especially by including nearly all characters from that movie (Mark Harmon, Chad Michael Murray, Rosalind Chao and Lucille Soong return) — she doesn’t have the refined, fresh touch of director Mark Waters (he later directed Mean Girls, again with Lohan).

Still, the movie is more enjoyable than its made-for-TV style trailer. This Friday isn’t as ‘freakier’ as the title suggests but, for the most part, it doesn’t disgrace the memory of its predecessor the way usual updates do. Recommended, though not whole-heartedly, it is good for a trip down memory lane in a premise that doesn’t have much originality left.

Released by Disney and HKC (in Pakistan), Freakier Friday is rated PG by the MPAA, and features the usual comedic shenanigans that mother-daughter comedies with a Disney vibe carry

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 31st, 2025