"Freaky Friday" Movie Review
Know Before You Go
Film/Video Reviews from a Family Perspective
Philip Boatwright, Editor
THEATRICAL RELEASE
Freaky Friday
. Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murray, Christina Wood, Mark Harmon. Disney. Comedy. W-Heather Hach, Lesslie Dixon. D-Mark Waters. 8/6/03
Dr. Tess Coleman (Curtis) and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Anna (Lohan), are not getting along. They don't see eye to eye on clothes, hair, or music, and certainly not in each other's taste concerning the opposite sex. Everything soon changes when two identical Chinese fortune cookies cause a mystic mayhem. The next morning, their Friday gets freaky when Tess and Anna find themselves inside the other's body. They gain a little newfound respect for the other's point of view, but with Tess's wedding coming on Saturday, the two have to find a way to switch back (and fast).
True, this genre has been done to death, but it is a great genre - having to walk around in another's body and world. And if it's done right, as it is here, the premise can be both hysterical and insightful.
Everything works - the script, the direction and certainly the performances, making this a fun movie-going experience. A mix of slapstick situations and witty dialogue, this smart family comedy also contains some honest empathy as the two leads confront issues such as a teen dealing with her mother's upcoming marriage and a mom's anxiety as her little girl nears womanhood.
If you are concerned about the "magical" element, rest assured the film does not promote any sort of mysticism. The supernatural contrivance of a mother and daughter switching bodies after cracking open fortune cookies serves only as a story device that leads to a clever and symbolic parable. It's not about Asian voodoo, but rather, about switching points of view. PG (2 minor expletives and 14 uses of the expression "oh my God" or variations of it; one crack about conservative clothing and selling Bibles, evidently implying that if one has something to do with Bibles they can't dress smartly; the surly attitude from the teen girl begins to annoy, but life lessons about love and family are learned by the precocious high schooler).
DEFINITIONS
Crudity - A word or action lacking in culture, tact
Expletive - A mild obscenity or needless expression
Obscenity - Objectionable or repugnant to acceptable standards of decency or morality; indecent; pornographic
Profanity - Irreverence toward God
Blasphemy - To speak contemptuously of God
Adult subject matter - Situations or subjects unsuitable for or difficult to comprehend by children
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