‘Freakier Friday’ (2025) Movie Review - Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis In An Unremarkable Sequel

One of the joys of watching Mark Waters's Freaky Friday lay in witnessing Jamie Lee Curtis act like a free-spirited teenager. The body swap device became an excuse for Curtis to unleash her inner child. She was funny and charming and gave the routines a new life. Her pairing with Lindsay Lohan was inspired — the duo was the most memorable part of the film, just behind Anna and Harry's squabbling. Curtis and Lohan are still wonderful in the sequel, Freakier Friday (directed by Nisha Ganatra), but there is nothing else that feels worthy of admiration. For the sequel, Ganatra and writer Jordan Weiss crank up the crazy meter by turning the swap into a foursome. Anna's (Lohan) body is swapped with that of her teenage daughter, Harper (Julia Butters), while Tess (Lee Curtis) switches bodies with Lily (Sophia Hammons), Anna's soon-to-be stepdaughter. Lily is the daughter of Eric (Manny Jacinto), and Eric is head over heels in love with Anna. What's more, Harper and Lily are classmates who, rest assured, are in no mood to send each other Friendship Day greeting cards. On paper, the body swap twist, then, threatens to throw the movie off its equilibrium. This Freakier Friday should have detonated with mayhem. 

But this is precisely what doesn't happen in the film. Most of it treads on the path of the prequel, while the rest simply...exists. Once again, there is a wedding, once again Elton Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky) harasses students, once again the daughter enjoys the benefit of suddenly being an adult, once again there is a wedding rehearsal, and once again the person on the stage pretends to play guitar (sort of). The only "old routine" that still remains funny is the one where Tess — or whoever is in Tess's body — criticizes herself for being old and weak. To break up Anna and Eric's wedding, Harper and Lily, as Anna and Tess, respectively, track Anna's first love, Jake (Chad Michael Murray), and try to rekindle the old relationship. To seduce Jake, "Anna," under "Tess's" orders, swings her hair, winks, and bites her lips. You have to admire the sheer commitment with which Lohan and Lee Curtis expend all their energy for the sake of our amusement, for comedy. Ganatra, however, is a director with a plain aesthetic. She does little more than point her camera at the actors, rather than truly seeing them in real time—failing to catch a small gesture here, a meaningful expression there—moments that could be spontaneously transformed into something fresh or energetic. For instance, during the scenes where "Anna" tries to break up with Eric and realizes how much Eric loves his soon-to-be-wife, Lohan expresses something intense, something deeply poignant through her eyes. Ganatra, however, has no idea what to do with these fervent feelings, which is why she undercuts Lohan's power by confining her to plot shenanigans and limp comedy routines.

This is why Freakier Friday looks thoroughly unremarkable, basic. Ganatra generates a bland, benign atmosphere of forced high spirits, earnestly urging you to smile because what you're watching is supposed to be funny. The director's lens is devoid of comic madness — it evokes neither zest nor exuberance. Every scene is more interested in offering an almost literal translation of the script. The bloopers during the end credits show that the cast had a blast making this film. Unfortunately, we don't have even half as much fun watching it.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times