I’m wanting ahead to Freakier Friday, and never simply out of devotion to reigning Scream Queen Jamie Lee Curtis or out of delight for Lindsay Lohan’s current comeback streak. I keep in mind having fun with the upcoming 2025 film’s predecessor, the 2003 adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ 1972 novel, and discovering it to be one of many higher physique swap films I had seen on the time (which is admittedly saying one thing, imagine me). Plus, I prefer to hold an open thoughts about these long-overdue and in the end pointless sequels we’ve got been getting currently, and this upcoming Disney film isn’t any exception.
That being mentioned, there was one thing I observed concerning the fantasy comedy’s first trailer that has me second-guessing the way to really feel about it, and it has nothing to do with Curtis seemingly carrying her Halloween films wig. It has to do with the plot of Freakier Friday, which, fortunately, makes an attempt one thing extra unique than copying the occasions of the primary movie, however it’s not fairly as contemporary because the filmmakers might have assumed. Permit me to clarify…
Freakier Friday And Household Change Each Contain Two Adults Swapping Our bodies With Two Teenagers
In 2003’s Freaky Friday, widowed psychiatrist Tess Coleman (Curtis) mysteriously wakes up within the physique of her rebellious teenage daughter, Anna (Lohan), and vice versa. Within the sequel, as a substitute of swapping with one another once more, Anna swaps along with her daughter, Harper (Julia Butters), and Tess swaps along with her soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily (Sophia Hammons). I might discover that to be a reasonably cool twist on this idea… if Household Change had not finished one thing fairly related only a few years earlier.
Within the 2023 Netflix unique film from director McG, Jess Walker (Jennifer Garner, in a job considerably much like her 13 Occurring 30 character) switches our bodies along with her teenage daughter, CC (Wednesday solid member Emma Myers), and Jess’ husband, Invoice (Ed Helms), switches our bodies together with his teenage son, Wyatt (Brady Midday). So, as you’ll be able to see, a twin physique swap between two adults with two familial teenagers shouldn’t be precisely a contemporary tackle this subgenre. In fact, the similarities between Freakier Friday and Household Change appear to cease there, because the Walkers’ toddler son, Miles, additionally swaps with their canine, Pickles. Hopefully, Freakier doesn’t incorporate something like that or we’ll have a bigger dialog on our fingers.
Admittedly, It is Arduous To Make A Really Unique Physique Swap Film
I want to make it clear that I’ve little question the similarities between these movies are purely coincidental. Moreover, Freakier Friday was formally introduced in mid-2023 (by way of THR), months earlier than Household Change premiered that November. I simply assume it’s price noting what unlucky timing that is for the Freaky Friday sequel, as its premise may have been particularly intriguing if it weren’t being launched in such shut proximity to the Netflix movie. A minimum of they aren’t being launched in the identical yr, like what occurred with physique swap films Vice Versa and 18 Once more in 1988.
Plus, I empathize with Freakier Friday director Nisha Ganatra and screenwriter Jordan Neiss, who’ve been tasked with crafting a singular entry on this subgenre that, fairly frankly, has hardly ever diverted from its components. There have solely been a handful of physique swap films which have pulled off one thing refreshing – equivalent to 1997’s basic motion film Face/Off (by which John Travolta and Nicolas Cage’s characters have their appearances surgically altered), Freaky (an old-school slasher movie-style tackle the idea), or Netflix’s underrated It’s What’s Inside (by which an experimental machine causes a number of folks to swap without delay as a part of a sport that goes awry).
As I all the time say, it in the end doesn’t matter how acquainted a film’s idea could appear, so long as the execution is unique. In that regard, I hope that Freakier Friday lives as much as its hype as a sequel price seeing.