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Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis deliver on laughs and nostalgia in Freakier Friday, according to movie critics.
The first reviews of the Disney sequel, directed by Nisha Ganatra, dropped on Tuesday, Aug. 5, with a majority of critics praising the film’s humor and heart, as well as the reuniting of Lohan, 39, and Curtis, 66.
Over two decades after their 2003 film, Lohan and Curtis reprise their roles as Anna, now a single mom, and Tess Coleman, a slightly overbearing grandma. This time, it’s a four-way body-swap, with Anna’s daughter Harper (Julia Butters) and her soon-to-be stepdaughter Lily (Sophia Hammons) also getting switched.
“Just as the first film surprised and charmed with its heart, zippy sense of humor, and standout lead performances, Freakier Friday recaptures and strengthens the magic,” writes Entertainment Weekly’s Maureen Lee Lenker.
Lenker adds that Curtis is “clearly having the time of her life” in the film, and that it’s “comforting to see the Lohan spark restored”: “For the first time since her return to acting in 2022’s Falling For Christmas, Lohan looks like she’s having fun. The ease, maturity, and comedic timing of her child star years are, at last, back in full force.”
IndieWire’s Kate Erbland writes that the long-awaited sequel is “worth the wait” and the cast’s “joy” onscreen is “contagious.” Erbland adds, “Curtis and Lohan go wild with the possibilities, the two actresses clearly delighting in getting to go on this new adventure together (if the first film was missing anything, it was the fizzy fun of seeing the pair sharing the screen).”
Julian Roman, in a review for MovieWeb, calls the sequel “hilarious and heartfelt,” writing, “There are enough familiar beats to evoke a warm nostalgia, while updating the narrative to playfully mock generations from boomers to Gen Alpha.”
Glen Wilson/Disney
Deadline’s Pete Hammond describes the movie as a “feel-good comedy ripe for the times as evidenced by the loud laughter at the screening I attended of this nostalgic Disney film that is about as Disney as it gets.”
Writes Rachel Labonte for ScreenRant: “I felt nothing but sheer delight at seeing Lohan and Curtis reunited on screen, doing the thing they do best: give their all to a hilarious body-swap premise. … Both actors are in perfect form.”
Not every critic is in love with Freakier Friday, though. The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney felt there is “nothing even remotely as funny” in the new entry as the previous, which “raised the bar” for the genre. Rooney adds, “I think I would have preferred a shot-for-shot remake to this painfully stretched cash-grab.”
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Clarisse Loughrey from The Independent argues that Freakier Friday relies on “unfunny nostalgia,” and that Lohan and Curtis “are left to merely milk nostalgia out of the film’s original fanbase, while anyone who’s 18 and below gets two Chappell Roan songs and some references to ‘safe spaces’ and ‘gluten-free’ options.”
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw says Curtis is the highlight who “embodies the story’s wacky spirit.” The Oscar winner “gets the laughs with her puppyishly uninhibited performance,” writes Bradshaw, while Lohan “does a reasonable job” but “doesn’t really have the comedy chops.”
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman writes that “there are a few scattered moments when the laughs break free” but the sequel is “is more ambitious and less funny.” Still, “the movie winds up being rather touching,” says Gleiberman.
Freakier Friday is in theaters Aug. 8.
