Freaky Friday

Disney has always had a strange preference with the ‘body-swap’ trope (evident by the fact that it’s used in several of their cartoons) and this more than likely comes from their bizarre obsession with Freaky Friday. Based on a 1972 novel of the same name written by Mary Rodgers, the tale of a mother and daughter living a day in each other’s body seems cute enough to make for one decent film, but Disney has released four adaptations over the span of several years; one in 1976 starring Jodie Foster and Barabara Harris, a direct-to-TV ABC remake in 1995 starring Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann, A Disney Channel Original remake in 2018 starring Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Heidi Blickenstaff, and a 2003 theatrical remake starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, with the latter being the most popular of the bunch. While it’s unclear why Disney wanted to continually remake this property, the 2003 film was a popular movie of the time, did well at the box office, and had enough staying power to get a sequel twenty-two years later with both Lohan and Curtis reprising their parts, so clearly it did something right to warrant that kind of attention.

The day before her wedding rehearsal, widowed single mother, Tess Coleman (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) is a psychologist who is set to marry a new man named Ryan (played by Mark Harmon), but is having trouble dealing with her rebellious daughter, Anna (played by Lindsay Lohan), who is having her own troubles at school dealing with bullies, poor grades (spurned by a teacher who harbors a strange vendetta against her) and building up the courage to speak to the boy she likes, Jake (played by Chad Michael Murray). Facing a breaking point while out at a Chinese restaurant, the two are gifted fortune cookies that unbeknownst to them, curses them to switch bodies, which they realize when they wake up the next morning. Now with the mother in the daughter’s body and vice versa, the two are forced to live out the other’s lives until a solution can be solved, causing them to see from the other perspective the ‘less-than-perfect’ standards each must deal with daily. Whether it’s taking a test they have no knowledge of, taking part in a talk show about a book they didn’t write, or performing a guitar solo with no idea of how to play, this mother/daughter duo will grow closer after quite literally walking in the other’s shoes.

Freaky Friday isn’t phenomenally written, doesn’t have the most interesting characters, and isn’t even a source material that feels worthy of so many adaptations, but with the help of a bubbly atmosphere, popping visual design, earnest direction and two funny leading performances from Lohan and Curtis, it at least somewhat earns its cult status.

The frustrating thing about the prevalence of body swap scenarios in kids’ entertainment is that while it can be an entertaining way to put established characters in unusual situations which can lead to sentimental character-building, they are often incredibly repetitive and don’t offer much variety. This is why it’s so bizarre that Disney would not only obsess over the trend, but with this specific story, which sounds fine for a children’s book (albeit one that already seems a little uncreative) and even for s a Disney live-action film in the 70s, but not really anything worthwhile outside of this specific window. This thought was not shared with producer Andrew Gunn, who met with Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group president, Nina Jacobson, to discuss a potential new adaption, which she eventually agreed upon after seeing that female-led, family-focused movies could still be financially success thanks to the recently released The Princess Diaries. While a few tweaks were included to match modern day sensibilities, the premise remains largely unchanged, but nothing about this delivery feels half-hearted at the very least.

It’s easy to call this film out for picking extremely predictable circumstances the character can get into, very basic character archetypes among the entire cast, and pretty generic dialogue that strangely doesn’t offer any interesting or clever zingers, but what this movie lacks in ingenuity, it makes up for in charm. There is a simple likeability to this movie that, despite clearly being part of an easily dated time period, never feels painfully submerged in it to the point of excess, and thanks to its chirpy presentation, spirited cast and colorful environments, it offers a chill, breezy, and slightly entertaining picture. The script written by Heather Hatch and Leslie Dixon doesn’t result in any strong jokes or deep character moments, but has enough genre awareness thanks to the solid material both writers have been attached that it can still produce some decent funny situations and even a tad bit of heart, and the directing by Mark Waters has a way of appealing to a younger crowd in a non-pandering sense (he would direct Mean Girls the following year, so he clearly knows how to work with the environment and age).

A lot of the positive energy this film gives off mainly comes down to Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and considering the eventual sequel gained a lot of traction thanks to both returning, it’s safe to say they are the secret ingredient as to why this film was a big success. Lohan was already a big Disney child star after starring in films like Get a Clue, Life-Size, and especially the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, and Curtis had established a solid career working in both drama and comedy at this point, so their pairing would be a good combo, and the results were extremely positive. The two work very well off each other both prior to and after their mental switch, and while their original portrayals are pretty stock and doesn’t showcase their acting that strongly, they really shine when they have to portray the other person. Lohan was never seen as an incredible child actress, but her ability to emulate Curtis’ mannerisms and tone of voice is pretty good and even the more sentimental moments honestly work better than expected, with the only thing holding her back being that her side of the story at school doesn’t lead to very many humorous opportunities. This isn’t a problem for Jamie Lee Curtis, who not only is incredibly funny playing this affluent rebellious teenager without a subtle hint in her body, but is placed in scenarios where that kind of attitude is extra funny like in a therapy session, or a live-TV interview, she definitely got the better end of the stick.

The rest of the cast aren’t bad by any means, but mainly just feel like stock roles meant to fill out the running time, and due to the writing and scenarios not being incredibly funny, they aren’t able to bring anything more to the table. It’s nice that roles that should feel extremely one-note like the soon-to-be new husband/stepfather played by Mark Harmon, or the bratty little brother (played by Ryan Malgarini) don’t feel like forced in antagonists or take up more screen time than they deserve, but at the same time, it’s hard to say they add anything meaningful either. Stephen Tobolowsky (who plays Anna’s English teacher who clearly has it out for her) has been in funny stuff in the past and has a delivery that could lead into something humorous, but doesn’t have enough screen time to really form a character, Rosalind Chao as the Chinese restaurant owner and Lucille Soong as her mother who kick-starts this crazy mix-up give funny performances, but feel too racially stereotypical to be that enjoyable, and Chad Michael Murray is mainly just brought in to be the good-looking love interest and he does that fine (with the only spout of randomness being his attraction to Jamie Lee Curtis throughout the movie, which can get a slightly chuckle).

As a movie set in and made in the early 2000s, the film feels like that top to bottom, and on occasion, some of the tropes are a little irritating. The opening starts off pretty poorly, with a generic rock cover of ‘’Happy Together’’ by The Turtles combined with zippy editing and constantly moving camera work, setting it up to be in-your-face dated and obnoxiously wacky to the point of exhaustion. Thankfully, this atmosphere chills out once it gets going and allows the lead’s performances to take centre stage over aspects of the time period, and even when they do rear their head back into the plot (like Anna’s rock band which doesn’t really sound that good), it doesn’t feel overly pandering. The look of the film is pleasant enough, with a style that doesn’t feel extremely high quality, but also doesn’t scream Disney Channel production either, it’s a pretty decent balance.

The colors are peaceful, the atmosphere is a little kooky but never to an extreme degree, the cinematography by Oliver Wood feels a lot more natural and even gets a decent shot every once and a while (which can also be said for the editing by Bruce Green), the costume design by Genevieve Tyrrell has fun clearly presenting the personalities of each main character before twisting them around by the end, and the musical score by Rolfe Kent fittingly matches a teen-based Disney Channel adjacent movie starring Lindsay Lohan (who, of course, gets a song by the end), but also doesn’t feel ear-gratingly 2000s either, so there have been far worse examples (especially within Disney).

Considering the sequel (fittingly titled Freakier Friday) released in 2025 surprisingly performed well critically and financially, that’s more millage than this story seemingly ever deserved, so this original remake must’ve had a lot of fans who grew up with it and were willing to jump back in, even though they knew it wouldn’t offer anything that much different. As its own movie, this 2003 adaptation isn’t great by any means and only features competent direction and writing, but with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis leading the charge with a lot of energy and charm, it makes all its acceptable qualities more fulfilling overall and results in a good experience. Probably not as chaotic or ‘’freaky’’ as it could’ve been, but with a few pleasant scenes, nice environments, and two really good main portrayals, this is an adaptation that was worth bringing back to life.