Round and round, here we go again. More than two decades after their bodies first swapped, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are back, reprising their iconic roles for a new generation in the highly anticipated sequel, Freakier Friday.
Based on the 1972 children’s book by Mary Rodgers, the story has since grown far beyond the page, becoming a pop culture phenomenon. While the original 1976 film starred Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster, it was the 2003 adaptation that truly resonated with a new generation. The 2003 version, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, quickly became a timeless comedy that not only showcased their dynamic chemistry but also cemented Lohan’s status as a quintessential ’00s icon. Now, 22 years later, Freakier Friday arrives with the challenging task of living up to this legacy. The film expertly balances nostalgia and modernity, capturing the heart of the original while confidently modernizing the story for today’s audience. While a few notes fall flat, Disney ultimately delivered a chart-topping hit —a power chord of nostalgia packed with all the callbacks you could want, while still singing a new song that resonates with mothers and daughters today.
The magic of the first film was a simple fortune cookie that forced a rebellious teenager and her stressed-out mom to swap lives. Now, Freakier Friday is ready to pull off a new kind of magic, with even more characters getting caught in the swap.
Having left her PinkSlip days of rock-and-roll rebellion behind, Anna Coleman is now a single mother and a music manager, but she’s facing a familiar battle with her daughter, Harper (Julia Butters). While Anna runs the career of a pop star named Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), her mother Tess has found a new stage as a parenting podcaster, where she enthusiastically details her “grand-coparenting” style. The film captures this modern family dynamic, proving that while the year is 2025 and the parenting styles have changed, the fundamental tension between three generations of women is still a classic three-chord riff that never gets old.
But things truly get freakier when the film’s central conflict involves not one body swap, but four. In true Disney fashion, Anna meets London chef Eric Davies (Manny Jacinto), and it’s love at first sight. An almost too quick, yet adorable, montage of their relationship and a six-month time jump lead to, of course, an engagement. With their wedding just days away, and their two daughters, Harper and Lily (Sophia Hammons), struggling to find any harmony, an offbeat psychic (Vanessa Bayer) triggers the inevitable magical mix-up we’ve all been waiting for. It’s a four-way trade that is nearly impossible to follow: Lily ends up in Tess’s body, Tess in Lily’s, Anna in her daughter’s, and Harper in Anna’s. The result is a chaotic blended family band where everyone is playing the wrong instrument.
If Freakier Friday is a concert, then Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are the headliners we’ve all been waiting for. And after two decades, it’s clear they haven’t lost a single step. Seeing them together on screen just felt right, like a reunion tour that delivered a powerful encore. After all, it was time for a lohaniissiance.
Since we last saw her, Anna Coleman isn’t the angsty pop punk star we’ve had on repeat in our heads for the past two decades. She’s now a mother, a character arc that is perhaps the most notable shift in the film. While it’s a shift that feels natural after 22 years, the notes fall flat because, let’s face it, we just want to imagine her as the Y2K princess of our youth forever. The character arc feels a bit out of tune as it’s hard to see Lohan, who is so often associated with her past roles, playing a responsible mother. The missing piece of this performance is the music, and it’s only in the film’s climax, when Anna makes her, pun entirely intended, ultimate musical comeback, that the character finally feels whole again. Opposite her is the driving force behind this entire sequel, Jamie Lee Curtis, who seems to simply be having fun and is along for the ride this time around. While the original film centered on the chaos between two generations of Colemans, this sequel makes room for three. In her new body-swapping role as a grandmother, Curtis adds a layer of comedy that was previously lost, creating some of the film’s most laugh-out-loud moments. This is where the magic happens, as the love between her and Lohan on screen wasn’t acting; it was evidently real, and it’s why the film works. When the two of them are on screen, it’s always a Friday feeling.
While the film introduces a new generation with Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons, it never tries to pass the torch. The new cast members hold their own, but this is still a film that belongs to Lohan and Curtis. Even the nostalgic reprise from original heartthrob Chad Michael Murray as Jake feels less like a distraction and more like a surprise guest appearance, a perfect bonus track to the main set.
If you were to examine the plot of the original film, the premise is essentially the exact same. A mother and daughter, unable to understand each other, swap lives. However, this film takes that familiar melody and updates the lyrics for today’s audience. By expanding the family to include three generations of Colemans, the themes of learning to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes feel new again. The film does a wonderful job of showing that while the specific conflicts change, the fundamental struggle between mothers and daughters, and now grandmothers and granddaughters, is timeless. With the addition of the character Lily, the film is also able to add a deeper level of analysis on blended families and sisterhood, proving that no matter which generation you’re from, you can see yourself in all of the Colemans.
As there is only so much one can do with a Freaky Friday sequel, the screenplay wasn’t anything shocking, but it was still surprisingly well-tuned. However, the true showstopper here is the soundtrack, which is synonymous with the film’s aesthetic and appeal. Made famous in the original film, the song “Take Me Away” was re-recorded for this sequel. It’s a perfect Y2K time capsule, with Lindsay Lohan performing the song once again alongside her PinkSlip bandmates as the film’s triumphant 11 o’clock number. Much like Taylor Swift’s re-recordings, the film doesn’t try to modernize or change the song, but instead honors the original, creating a powerful moment that reminds us why this film’s legacy is still so strong.
While Hollywood’s relentless production of sequels can often feel tiresome, it’s easy to see why this film earned a theatrical run. It’s a solid comeback that, at its best, feels like a great mix of comedic and heartfelt moments. As the song “Take Me Away” reminds us, it’s the “same old start, same old end,” and while the film is more of a great cover band than the headliner, I didn’t leave let down. While I thought I had this movie figured out, I was surprised to find myself feeling that familiar Disney pull on the heartstrings. Freakier Friday reminds us that the best stories, like the best songs, never lose their rhythm, and that the power of family, laughter, and a little body-swapping chaos will always be worth an encore.
