Watched: 06/08/2025
Format: Disney+
Viewing: First
Director: Mark Waters
If you weren't an adult in the 00's, it's hard to imagine how easily mainstream media managed to convince the public that completely random people were now the biggest star in the world and we all had to care about them. This was a result of the fact that the internet had not yet discovered algorithms and was just force-feeding us content, so whether they were pushing someone on teens or the elderly, we all got the same stuff.
America was in the middle of occupying Iraq, which had begun four months before the release of Freaky Friday (2003), and as a bit of a newshound at the time, I was often trying to find out wtf was happening. But every time you tried to get online and look at the news, sites were saying "yeah, war in Iraq that could trigger 1000 years of war with the East, but... look at what Lindsay Lohan's mom said today!".
I have no negative feelings about Lohan, especially as a teen. She existed. But I can't say the same for the de-evolution of news at the dawn of the clickbait era and selling us on the antics of certain celebrities.
Lohan is fine in this movie. Cute, has a pack-a-day-habit voice pioneered by Jodie Foster and carried on to Emma Stone just a few years later, but... In my book, Jamie Lee Curtis is putting on a comedy clinic. Lohan's good! But with JLC playing a surly teen, Lohan doesn't get to do anything as kooky as JLC. And I am not sure she has the same presence as Foster in the original film, but those may just be fond memories from 1982 or so when I last watched the movie.
I found this version, though, really, really funny - once it gets started. And it doesn't suffer from meandering in the manner of 70's-era Disney live-action flicks. The first ten minutes or so are rough as we watch the leads snipe at each other and get all of the set-up in place - including the shitty younger brother. But, immediately upon the body swap, the movie works. I was lol'ing.
2025 audiences might shift uncomfortably about the trigger being a magic fortune cookie. I'll just leave it at that.
My recollection is that the original movie is a bit more even-sided between the kid and mom not understanding each other, but this one really leans into Lohan's character taking it from all sides before the swap, which initially I found odd, but it does give the story plenty to work with as Mom-in-Kid's body navigates her daughter's day, (the unfair English teacher played by Tobolowsky is particularly a good bit). And I did appreciate that the script's inclusion of a step-father coming into the picture (Mark Harmon) is played so well.
But... for comedy... JLC mooning over a boy, frustrated with her punk brother.. it's all pretty solid work and she commits to the bit. I wish they'd done more with the therapy session stuff, but what we got was good.
Tragically, the movie is also from the era of SoCal Pop-Punk being shoved down our throats, and it wasn't enjoyable at the time and has aged like a banana left out for two solid months. Thus, I wish I enjoyed the rock band numbers more than I did. But I didn't, minus JLC clearly really knowing how to play the bit her character plays in the film. That was cool.
I didn't start this post off to drag Lohan - it was just a weird time for how talent was promoted (remember how we were bombarded with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie for way too long?), and she had some hard years transitioning to being a grown-assed adult as a result. But this movie was a key part in her rise to fame and Disney trying to cash in on her popularity. And you kind of wonder what would have been if Hollywood weren't so full of toxic monsters.
Fortunately, Lohan and JLC are teaming up for a sequel this summer, so maybe she'll get a second shot. She's been fine in her Netflix movies.
