usy psychologist Tess Coleman (Curtis) and her teenage daughter Anna (Lohan) don't understand each other. Anna doesn't approve of Ryan (Harmon), the man her widowed mother is about to marry. Tess doesn't understand Anna's sullen attitude, or her dreams of making it big with her garage band. The two of them can't even put their differences aside when the family goes out for Chinese food the night before Tess and Ryan's rehearsal dinner.
When their argument catches the attention of the restaurant's elderly owner, she decides to intervene. The old Chinese woman gives Tess and Anna fortune cookies with the same cryptic message inside. When they open them simultaneously, there's a mysterious earthquake which no one else seems to notice. The next morning, mother and daughter awaken to find that they've switched bodies. With Anna's big audition at the House of Blues that night and Tess' wedding the next day, the two of them have to figure out a way to change back before anyone notices they aren't themselves. In the meantime, they will have to spend a day in each other's shoes, literally.
Tess finds that high school isn't as easy as she remembers, while Anna has to take on her mother's therapy sessions and appear on a talk show to promote her latest book. To complicate matters further, a confused potential love interest (Murray) begins pursuing Anna in her mother's body—a fact which doesn't go unnoticed by Ryan. As the day progresses, however, Tess and Anna begin to gain the understanding that could be the key to their ultimate restoration.
An unnecessary update
Since the original Freaky Friday (starring a young Jodie Foster) was released in 1976, the body-switching premise as novelized in Mary Rodgers' book has been often copied in film and television (Vice Versa, Wish Upon a Star), but seldom improved upon. Which begs the question, why remake it at all? After seeing the film, the answer is still unclear.
Between the stock characters—the doddering grandfather, the pesky little brother, the saintly step-father—and the predictable conclusion, there's nothing new or original to add to the formula here. In spite of the filmmakers' attempts to infuse an ultra-hip sensibility into its Gen Y characters, all they manage to achieve is Disney-brand hip. Lohan is a clean-cut, Avril Lavigne-inspired punk rocker, without the bite. Chad Michael Murray's character Jake is the Disney version of bad boy. We only know he's bad because he rides a motorcycle and wears a leather jacket.
It's ultimately the performances of Curtis and Lohan in their dual roles that make the film watchable. Curtis especially seems to be having a ball as she bodysurfs, takes pratfalls and straps on an electric guitar for the film's rocking finale. It's not difficult to see her as a teenager trapped in a woman's body. Lohan, who also appeared in the more successful remake (at least artistically), The Parent Trap, has a mature sense about her that plays well in the Tess-as-Anna scenes.
While this isn't a great cinematic achievement, what works in the film is enough to keep it from being a complete waste of time. And the message of better understanding through different points of view has merit enough. If nothing else, it guarantees a 90-minute break from the summer heat inside an air-conditioned movie theater with a sweet, lighthearted comedy that demands little of its audience.
