MOVIE REVIEW

Freaky Friday  (2003)

Starring: Jaime Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Mark Harmon
Director: Mark S. Waters

Rating: PG

Studio: Walt Disney

Release Date: 8.06.03

Review Posted: 8.06.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara Michelle Fetters

Curtis the Comedic Thunder Energizing "Freaky Friday"

Walt Disney Studios is having a pretty amazing run this summer. First, the delightful “Holes” comes out at the end of April, completely surprising everyone by being an intelligently crafted family movie grounded firmly in old-school Disney tradition. Then “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” proves, not only not too suck, but to be half way enjoyable, too, with a simply delightful comedic turn from Hilary Duff. The studio can than thank Pixar for – so far – the year’s best, and most profitable, film “Finding Nemo,” while the theme park adaptation “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” not only attests to be a winner, but also showcases a stellar performance from erstwhile chameleon Johnny Depp.

Can such a miraculous run of family friendly successes continue, especially considering the studio’s next big venture is the dubious sounding remake of their 1976 Barbara Harris/Jodie Foster classic “Freaky Friday?” Well, putting the sublime talents of Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead sure helps matters. In fact, it is by the sheer will of her fiery, playful and profoundly childlike turn that this new variation of Mary Rogers’ classic novel not only stands on its own, but manages to rate as one of the summer’s purest surprise pleasures.

In this incarnation, Curtis plays Dr. Tess Coleman, a stressed-out career woman juggling a thriving practice while also trying to raise two children as a single mother. Youngster Harry (Ryan Malgarini) would be trouble enough by himself, but it is the teenage Annabell (Lindsay Lohan, “The Parent Trap”) that really has mom at her wits end. The two just can’t seem to see eye to eye, especially over Tess’ fiancé Ryan (Mark Harmon, “Wyatt Earp,” “The Presidio”) or Annabell’s ambitions to be a rock’n’roll singer.

During dinner at a Chinese restaurant, things reach a boiling point between the duo and the shouting match to end all others leaves both shaken and non-too-happy with the other. But after receiving a mysterious fortune cookie and getting a good night’s sleep, both women are about to discover that neither girl’s life is made on a bed of roses, as both wake to find the dawn peaking through the shades of the other’s bedroom. Now they are seemingly stuck living life as the other, mother and daughter trading places knowing that they must find some way soon to switch back before the rest of the world become privy to their situation.

This younger/older, mother/daughter, father/son switcheroo has been done many times – both “Big” and the original “Freaky Friday” come most readily to mind – so there are not too many places that newcomer Heather Hatch and veteran Leslie Dixon (“The Thomas Crown Affair”) can take the film’s screenplay. In fact, some of it borders just about too far south for rational adult consumption, especially in regards to the childish antics of little Harry and in the didactic meanderings of Grandpa Coleman (Harold Gould, “Stuart Little,” “Patch Adams”). I also could have done without much of the bathroom humor – “Shanghai Noon” already ran into the ground all the comedic possibilities of naming an Asian character Pei-Pei – that seams to be a continuing trademark of director Mark Waters (“The House of Yes,” “Head Over Heels”).

But another, and far more fruitful, trademark of the young director is a snide subversive side that tends to make even the simplest and most familiar of stories slightly surreal. He handles the distance and misunderstanding between mother and daughter with surprising aplomb. What’s best about his conception and handling of the film is that he realizes distinctly that the conflicts at the center are mostly internal, and that all the external dangers that occur or really relatively minor compared to the emotional damage being levied by the duo due to their refusal to communicate and understand one another.

I also liked how Waters uses music as both the discord and eventual tool for harmony between Tess and Annabell. Culminating in a raucous concert at the House of Blues, Water’s stages the climax as, not only a big musical event infused with energy, but also as vigorous component of the pair’s mutual understanding and reciprocal love. It’s a common refrain that sometimes the deepest emotions have to be sung to be truly expressed; “Freaky Friday” takes that to heart and literally does just that with effervescently wondrous results.

Granted, it helps he’s got Curtis as the main foil for his madness. As good as Lohan, Harmon and many of the others are, this is the “Fish Called Wanda” star’s show all the way. Whether playing Tess as the frumpy and controlled career woman or freewheeling seemingly with improvisational abandon as the disguised Annabell, Curtis is the show stopping force giving “Freaky Friday” all its energy. It’s easy to forget, especially when she takes paycheck roles in crap like “Halloween: Resurrection,” just how good the actress is, and then something like this movie comes along and she hits you square in the jaw with her talents.

Not perfect by any means, “Freaky Friday” still boasts some of the best in family entertainment to come out this summer. But in 2003 that sort of thing seems to be becoming old-hat for Disney; a streak of quality the studio hasn’t seen in years. Here’s hoping it continues.

Rating: êêê  (out of 4)

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