Review
FREAKY FRIDAY
Starring Jaime Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan
Directed by Mark S. Waters
Opens Wednesday, Aug 6
Check Listings
Like, I kind of liked Freaky Friday. It's, like, totally a Disney movie, so I knew what I was getting into when I went. So I just kinda watched the film to, like, see if it played out that formula of overcoming fairly simple obstacles to totally change the world into a place where everything is perfect. And this movie totally did that for me.
If you're a bitter teen and you're smart enough to hate the way teens are portrayed by Disney, then you will probably hate this movie. I'm always surprised by how willing some teenagers are to let themselves be condescended to. It must be the school system.
As far as the genre goes, Freaky Friday is quite well made. Anna (Lindsay Lohan), who plays lead guitar in the band Pink Slip, is an Avril Lavigne-inspired heterosexual-rocker-chick who still has all the "complicated" problems that teens are told to have. Her mother, Dr. Tess Coleman (Jaime Lee Curtis), a psychologist and author, is about to marry the ideal sensitive man. Anna's father died three years ago, and she is having a hard time accepting this new, perfect step-dad. The mother and daughter argue, and thanks to a crafty old Chinese woman with magic fortune cookies, the two are transported into each other’s bodies. From that moment on, a film-driving tension is created. This might be out of empathy for the characters, or it might be because seeing Curtis act like a goofy and stupid teenaged girl gets pretty annoying. Lohan, on the other hand, is excellent in the movie, and plays both the role of Anna, and Tess inside Anna's body, with a pleasant understatement.
The formula of the movie is delivered without many serious flaws, except for the awkwardness created by having a love story where an adult in a teenaged body and a teenager in an adult body, are in love with opposite, perfect male counterparts. Anna, trapped inside the body of her mother, seems to constantly avoid being kissed by the mother’s love interest, and it gives a creepy vibe to the film.
That said, I laughed a lot at this movie, and when it was done I had that feel-good celebratory feeling that Disney is so good at giving an audience. Be prepared to see lots of people being tackled, and Jaime Lee Curtis doing a rad guitar solo. |
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