Third time's the charm for remake of 'Freaky Friday'

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

FREAKY FRIDAY (PG) Three Stars (Good) Thanks to the always-pleasurable veteran Jamie Lee Curtis, the fresh-faced adolescent Lindsay Lohan, imaginative director Mark Waters and an amiable and sort-of-hip script, the third film version of "Freaky Friday" gets it right. The Disney comedy has a mother and her teen daughter magically change places for a day. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan. Director: Mark Waters. Walt Disney Pictures, 97 minutes.

Thanks to the always-pleasurable veteran Jamie Lee Curtis, the fresh-faced adolescent Lindsay Lohan, imaginative director Mark Waters and an amiable and sort-of-hip script, this third version of "Freaky Friday" gets it right.

"Freaky Friday" is in the tradition of movies that allow characters to spend a little time in someone else's shoes. (Others in the genre include "All of Me," "Big" and "Vice Versa.") The film details how a frustrated mother and her rebellious teenage daughter switch bodies and learn about life from the other's point of view.

The Disney saga first surfaced in 1976 as a run-of-the-mill Disney comedy during a less-than-inspired period in the studio's history. (Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster played mother and daughter.) It was first remade as a forgettable made-for-TV film in 1995 (with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann.)

Here Curtis is Dr. Tess Coleman, a widowed psychoanalyst with two children. Her 15-year-old daughter Anna (Lohan) plays in a rock band, feels restricted by household chores and spends a bit too much time in classroom detention. Her running complaint to Mom is "you're ruining my life."

Tess, meanwhile, is busy with wedding preparations. She's scheduled to marry an understanding guy (Mark Harmon) on the upcoming weekend. But her daughter is still upset about her father's death and can't bear to have a "replacement" in the house. During dinner at a Chinese restaurant, the owner notices the bickering Coleman females — and offers them fortune cookies as a peace offering. Little do they know they're magical. The ground shakes and they become each other. And, boy, do they have a lot to learn.

On her first glance in the mirror Anna discovers she's her Mom. "I look like the Crypt Keeper!" she moans. Mom, meanwhile, is Anna — and discovers only then that her daughter has her belly button pierced. Anna now looks like a middle-aged woman. She has to handle patients in analysis and prepare for a wedding. Mother Tess is now a 15-year-old, learning all over again about the challenges of high school life, the occasional cruelty of classmates, the challenges of a math test and the complications of teen romance. And, oh yes, she has to figure some way to play guitar in a rock band when she wouldn't know a C chord from a B-flat.

Obviously, lessons are learned and peace is restored. But along the way, Curtis generates much fun and a lot of laughs, displaying her talent for physical comedy and her playful spirit, while assuming the attitude and high drama of an emotional adolescent. Lohan is nearly as good in a more restrained way, assuming an adult's calm maturity within the guise of a 15-year-old.

But it's Curtis who elevates "Freaky Friday" way beyond expectations. We shouldn't be surprised. She's made a career out of making the mediocre good and the good better.

Rated PG, with mild profanity and innuendo.