“Freaky Friday” (2003) was the third of four film adaptations of Mary Rodgers’ 1972 iconic body swap novel and Rodgers’ favorite. Dr. Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan) do not see eye to eye on how they live their respective lives. To Tess, Anna is a whiner who takes no responsibility for the problems in her life and needs strictness to avoid becoming a hussy. Anna sees her mother as the person who sucks all the fun out of everything. How will they learn how to appreciate each other to make their respective lives better? Body swap via fortune cookies.
“Freaky Friday” did not age well in one way: the Magical Asian, which is like the Magical Negro, in the form of Pei Pei’s mom (Lucille Soong) and making queen Rosalind Chao adopt a fake accent to play Pei Pei. I totally did not remember that, so I either suppressed it or (yikes) did not notice it. Otherwise, this film is a classic that cannot be beat, and when I watched it, I was not the target demographic.
Both characters were relatable, three-dimensional characters in a live action cartoon. Tess was juggling a land line, a work cell and home cell to run her business and be her own wedding planner. Her style was drab, but realistic. She was also clearly a boy mom who coddled her son, Harry (Ryan Malgarini), and only saw her daughter through sexualized eyes thinking that showing a bit of midriff or piercings would turn Anna into a slut, which is dangerous thinking. Her ideas on privacy were alarming for a therapist to have. When the makeover happens, Tess becomes Jamie Lee Curtis, who was styled like women dressed at the time, not some fantasy of a makeover that no one would put on their body—looking at you, “Freakier Friday” (2025).
While Anna presented as the stereotypical, histrionic teen, she was also smart as a whip though unrewarded and consistently functioned as bullies’ target at home and school. She was right to feel aggrieved, so all her theatrics were warranted, which was the huge plot twist. Also, it turned out that her crush, Jake (Chad Michael Murray) was not a bad boy, but a hard worker who genuinely liked Anna’s mind regardless of where it resided. He was not just interested in one thing. She and her friends, Maddie (Christina Vidal) and Peg (Haley Hudson), were actually talented musicians, and while their eventual concert was unrealistic for the average teen, it was way more feasible to fill the House of Blues than a stadium. Even if the actual friendship did not get a lot of screentime, the proof was in the pudding. They rocked as Pink Slip. Also, Anna dressed like a normal teenage girl, not a marketing ad’s idea of what a teen girl dressed like. It turned out that Anna was a genius but like in “Legally Blonde” (2001), because she presented as a typical teenage girl, not a tomboy or a nerd, misogyny was plaguing her.
Most of the guys were the problem in “Freaky Friday.” Anna’s little brother was actually starting all the fights. Grandpa (Harold Gould) was a constant loving presence but did nothing to alleviate Tess’ parenting burden and generally dismissed anything happening in the home. Understandably, Ryan was trying to be liked as the newest member of the family, but he further enabled Harry’s bad behavior and was not sharing the wedding planning duties. While Tess had her own internalized misogyny, she was doing all the heavy lifting, which is why the guys could sit back, relax and act easy going. It is easy to be a good guy when you do not have to do anything. To be fair, at that time, these issues were not obvious and would not have even been on Tess’ radar, but with the benefit of hindsight, it is obvious how these dynamics compounded the problem.
“Freaky Friday” was brilliant with two storylines. While in her mom’s body, Anna realizes how overwhelming her mother’s life is, and one of Tess’ patients, Evan (Willie Garson), immediately turns hostile at the idea that his doctor should have any boundaries even when those boundaries benefit him so she can just focus on him during their session. The idea of the angry man lashing out at the first no is a true story though neither Tess, nor Anna, realize how dangerous it is and do nothing to protect themselves from it. While Anna is framed as callous in the way that she describes him, she is not wrong. While in her mom’s body, once Anna oversaw her brother’s well-being, it became obvious how Tess protected Harry and did not notice how her inaction or instinctive response to side with Anna’s persecutors led to feeding her to the wolves.
Once Tess was in Anna’s body, there is an ingenious classroom scene in which Mr. Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky) practically feeds the answers to a clueless teen boy while Tess offers three correct answers to his single question about Hamlet, so he flunks her. There is a huge plot twist revelation regarding Mr. Bates’ backstory, which explains why he specifically treats Anna unfairly, but the actual dynamic is familiar without it. Guys can do less and still be rewarded while female presenting people are innately less credible despite overachieving and somehow still manage to be disappointing for not fulfilling a need that it is neither their job to perform nor were they informed of these unspoken duties. Then everyone wonders why Anna is constantly screaming. She is not overreacting.
There is also a mini “Mean Girls” (2004) storyline involving Anna and a former childhood friend, Stacey Hinkhouse (Julie Gonzalo), who presents as a more acceptable version of feminine teenager. Fun fact: director Mark Waters directed “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls.” Stacey is physically violent yet only Anna gets reprisals. There is a cute little dynamic with the wordless Detention Monitor (Lu Elrod), who knows that Anna is a decent kid, but still buys what Stacey is selling. Everyone, including Tess, thinks that Anna is bad because of how they feel about her, not what she does, even when it is obvious that she is the victim: constantly getting hit in the head with a volleyball, winding up unconscious after getting assaulted or (back to Harry), someone is in her room who was not invited then taking a door down so he has easier access. Certain people are supposed to know their place and allow themselves to be victims but are pathologized when they fight back. It is important to break down who is allowed to be violent and who is not.
“Freaky Friday” is satisfying because it does restore justice in the universe for Anna so her mom could appreciate what a wonderful and talented kid she has. It is also fun to see Curtis shredding a guitar and do a pitch perfect Anna impression. Every character was treated with care. It was a genuinely engrossing and entertaining film even if the body swap genre is a bit too into teasing inadvertent age-inappropriate romantic relationships.
