Lindsay Lohan finally has a decent comeback movie
movie review
FREAKIER FRIDAY
Running time: 111 minutes. Rated PG (thematic elements, rude humor, language and some suggestive references). In theaters.
Lindsay Lohan has, seemingly overnight, switched things up.
Instead of trotting out another one of those execrable holiday turds that have so far amounted to her feeble comeback, she’s starring in something that’s actually OK.
It’s “Freakier Friday,” the cute sequel to the 2003 body-swap comedy in which teenage Anna wakes up as her therapist mom, Tess, played by Jamie Lee Curtis — and vice versa.
Lessons are learned, Lindsays are Lohaned.
Even for a silly supernatural pool toy that’s been re-inflated, though, buying into “ier” requires some brain gymnastics.
The follow-up takes an already outlandish setup and excessively doubles it — much like when Taco Bell started making shells out of Doritos.
Speaking of shells, Tess and Anna leave their physical forms again — what are the odds?! — only this time they wind up in the frames of Anna’s daughter Harper (Julia Butters) and potential stepdaughter Lily (Sophia Hammons).
So, that’s four displaced souls (Anna with Harper; Tess with Lily), which can be hard to keep track of. I occasionally forgot who was who.
If you’re the type who once kvetched, “I simply don’t believe Catherine O’Hara could have left Macaulay Culkin home alone a second time,” your arms will be angrily crossed for the full length of “Freakier.”
It also takes a leap to accept that Lohan’s 36-year-old Anna, who’s the successful LA manager of a pop star, is also the mother of a 15-year-old surfer. That’s batted away in a sentence and barely ever mentioned again.
“When my daughter chose to become a single mom, it changed our family forever,” says Tess on her podcast “Rebelling with Respect.” Alrighty then.
But if you allow logic to clock out, director Nisha Ganatra’s movie can be very funny in spots, especially Vanessa Bayer’s hilarious hack psychic who — in a moment straight outta “Ghost” — makes the rare accurate prediction. There’s predictable warmth and sentimentality.
And Curtis, who’s delightfully had a screw loose since her no-holds-barred turn in “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” all but does backflips when her body is taken over by glam British Lily.
“I’m bloody decomposing!,” Curtis shouts at the mirror in disgust.
But what of LiLo?
Lohan, once again, has found herself in the middle of a parent trap, but thankfully not in the middle of an embarrassing flop.
Frantic, relatable Anna is about to marry Lily’s dad Eric (Manny Jacinto) and move the family far away to London. Even though Harper and Lily hate each others’ guts, they team up to stop the nuptials.
The “Mean Girls” actress seems rejuvenated this time. Probably because her charisma and pluckiness are much better showcased when she plays opposite an actress of Curtis’ caliber.
Suffice it to say, Lohan did not have that useful advantage in Netflix’s “Falling for Christmas.”
“Freakier Friday” is not a grand return for everybody.
Chad Michael Murray’s love-interest character Jake is shoved in like a book under a wobbly table. That’s the gag, I suppose. He’s mostly there to put his hands through his hair.
And Butters and Hammons lean bland. Nobody expects them to be scene stealers.
Lohan and Curtis are the main attractions, since “Freakier” functions mostly as a nostalgia trip for thirty-something ticket-buyers who can now legally enjoy a margarita. But while massaging millennials, the movie also has a good time slinging mud at Gen Z.
There’s lots of mocking talk about being “seen.”
Anna yells, “No more holding space for feelings!”
And the generational sendups aren’t one-sided. Curtis’ baby boomer Tess has become a Pickleball fanatic whose mobile phone font size can be seen from Jupiter.
Ganatra’s movie looks a sliver better than what you’d find on Disney+, and the director, as she showed in “Late Night,” has a knack for jokes and heart.
That said, I hope that Bayer’s palm reader does not see a “Freakiest Friday” in the future.
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