It’s a story as previous as fashionable time: A mom and her younger teenage daughter are locked in a battle of wits in opposition to knowledge as they’re every satisfied the opposite couldn’t probably perceive their struggles. And presto, a magical switcheroo into one another’s our bodies to expertise life within the precise footwear of their would-be nemesis as a lesson of compassion and empathy.
Mary Rogers’s novel Freaky Friday was first printed in 1972 and stays in print as we speak, fairly a feat for books from that period in a current-day publishing panorama that’s hyperfocused on the brand new. It’s seen a number of movie variations together with iterations in 1976, 2003, and 2018 (however we received’t speak in regards to the straight-to-streaming 2018 embarrassment right here).
Whereas every day life has definitely modified for girls and ladies over these nearly 5 many years because of technological growth, mother-daughter angst stays timeless. This particular story is so compelling that the 2003 model is about to get one other sequel in August 2025, reuniting its authentic solid of Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, each of whom have been permitted to age on display by an trade that always discards girls as soon as they move the 30-year mark. So, placing the 1976 and 2003 variations of Freaky Friday again to again reveals a number of fascinating issues about consent and getting old.
Within the authentic movie, each Annabel (Jodie Foster) and Ellen (Barbara Harris) make a want on the similar second to be within the different’s footwear. As a result of it was Friday the thirteenth, this want got here true, forcing their reckoning with one another and themselves. The 2 girls go on separate journeys of exploration and overwhelm till they attain a boiling level the place they as soon as once more, out of desperation, make a want to change again and return to their respective our bodies.
In distinction, the 2003 model begins with what Anna (Lohan) calls “unusual Asian voodoo.” Native Chinese language restaurant proprietor Pei Pei’s (Rosalind Chao) unnamed mom (Lucille Soong) enchants two fortune cookies, main Anna and Tess (Curtis) to modify our bodies in a single day. This can be a troubling second of Orientalism and Othering that hasn’t aged properly in an in any other case enjoyable romp by means of magical realism. In contrast to the unique, Anna and Tess determine shortly what’s occurred and proceed to work collectively to get by means of their faculty and work days (and wedding ceremony rehearsal dinner!) till they will reverse the spell. Finally within the remake, it’s not so easy to get again into their very own pores and skin. They every must commit a selfless act for the opposite, and as soon as this organically takes place they’re restored and given a recent begin with newfound respect for his or her relationship.
Whereas the consequences of getting old through the spectrum of womanhood from puberty to menopause should not consensual and may’t be stopped with out medical intervention, the 2003 model of Freaky Friday additionally finally ends up exploring all of the totally different nonconsensual conditions that girls undergo from childhood to maturity. Other than the change itself, Anna is being punished by her English trainer Mr. Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky) as a result of her mom wouldn’t exit with him in highschool. Anna’s crush Jake (Chad Michael Murray) turns into obsessed together with her mom, going as far as to harass and stalk her from her home to her engagement get together with the intention of breaking apart her marriage. Even Anna’s little brother and Tess’s son Harry (Ryan Malgarini) behaves like a jerk to his sister as a result of he thinks it’s a sport when it’s really inflicting his sister harm and added stress. The one man on this story who values boundaries and has clear traces of consent with all the ladies in his orbit is Tess’s fiance Ryan (Mark Harmon). [Ironically, in real life Mark Harmon has been accused of assault by his NCIS costar Pauley Perrette, who alleged he physically attacked her while on set.]
I do love that within the authentic story Annabel and Ellen make a option to stroll in one another’s footwear. However the remake is much extra correct to lady’s and girls’s lived experiences with regards to issues taking place to our our bodies with out our permission, starting most dramatically in girlhood and persevering with into maturity — from puberty to menopause, and hundreds of occasions massive and small in between. Every now and then a thread begins on social media the place girls share the primary time they skilled nonconsensual and sexualizing habits from grownup males, and these tales occurred to girls after they have been as younger as six or seven years previous. And these incidents, by the way, don’t cease till girls attain their 40s and 50s, changing into invisible for sure sorts of predatory behaviors.
What’s further fascinating is that the Freaky Friday remake got here out simply earlier than the #MeToo period, when rampant sexual harassment and abuse was going down with the one penalties being ruined careers of ladies, not their highly effective abusers who would proceed their violence with impunity for an additional decade and longer. Not solely does the 2003 Freaky Friday extra precisely replicate the nonconsensual issues our our bodies undergo as we age, it additionally highlights what was taking place in Hollywood itself to younger women and girls alike. Within the years since, so many stunning documentaries about youngster abuse in Hollywood have come out, like Quiet on the Set: The Darkish Aspect of Children TV about Disney’s rival channel Nickelodeon’s horrific behind-the-scenes practices that left so many youngsters each bodily and psychologically broken by serial predators.
The primary time I noticed Freaky Friday I used to be the identical age as its younger protagonist. When the sequel got here out, I used to be in a liminal part of my mid-twenties however nonetheless younger sufficient to interact with Anna’s angst despite the fact that in 2003 I used to be nearer in age to Tess (Curtis); I hadn’t but lived totally independently as I transitioned into marriage. Freakily, it wouldn’t be till now, at 46, once I’m alone after a lifetime of codependent relationships that I totally perceive Tess’s personal angst at attempting to handle all of it, and determine together with her deeply on a private stage now.
That mentioned — and even with out a daughter of my very own — watching these movies once more now was jarring as I associated with the mothers in each Freaky Friday movies greater than the women. I’m discovering myself interested by whether or not and the way I’ll relate to Jamie Lee Curtis’s grandmother physique swap in Freakier Friday, particularly given among the reasonably painful ageism simply within the trailer that means an incredible discomfort bordering on disgust with a postmenopausal physique in its 60s as Curtis swaps our bodies together with her granddaughter.
It stays to be seen how properly Freakier Friday handles these themes of getting old and consent. However what’s basically exceptional is each Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan have been allowed to age on display, one thing of a feat nowadays in remakes and sequels that always substitute the unique older girls stars with younger faces. This truth alone makes Freakier Friday one of many extra socially and culturally vital movies hitting screens this 12 months. And since angst about getting old is eternally, each biologically and psychologically, we are able to safely predict that Freakier Friday will resonate specifically with its girls audiences — for higher or worse.
Freakier Friday will likely be launched in theaters on August 8, 2025.
