August 11, 2025
Anna Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) is a music producer who is raising her daughter Harper (Julia Butters) as a single mom after her husband passed away. Harper was a rebellious teenager who loved to go surfing before going to school in the morning, much to Anna's distress. Anna's mother was Dr. Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis), a noted therapist and best-selling author, still happily married to her husband Ryan (Mark Harmon).
One day, Harper and her new British lab partner Lily (Sophia Hammons) had an accident in chemistry class, so both their parents were called to school. Anna was swept off her feet when she met Lily's father Eric (Manny Jacinto), who was also a single parent like her. There was a whirlwind romance and the two were engaged in six months. Harper and Lily did not get along, especially when the issue of moving was brought up.
This new film is the sequel of "Freaky Friday" (2003). The central plot of that original film involved the switching of personalities of Anna and Tess in the first film. To make this sequel twice as exciting, of course they had to up the ante by switching the personalities of four people -- Anna and Tess switching with Harper and Lily. This four-way mix-up caused a more complex comedy of errors as they pretend to be each other.
In the first film, there was also a coming wedding between Tess and Ryan, with Anna was rebelling against it. There was also an element of the occult that caused the earthquake that caused the switcheroo -- the fortune cookies of Grandma Chang (Lucille Soong) in the Chinese restaurant of Pei-pei (Rosalind Chao) the first film, and a palm-reading fortune teller Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer) in the sequel.
Aside from the cameos of Soong and Chao, there were many other callbacks from the first film which loyal fans will enjoy. Mr. Elton Bates (Stephen Tobolowsky) is back as the insufferable detention teacher. Anna's band Pink Slip with Maddie (Christina Vidal Mitchell) and Peg (Haley Hudson) performed. Anna's love interest in the first film Jake (Chad Michael Murray) also returns, with references to his short-lived but intense crush on Tess. Anna's younger brother Harry (Ryan Malgarini, now 33) had a short cameo at the rehearsal lunch.
While it was fun to watch Lohan and Curtis play Anna and Tess again, Butters and Hammons as Harper and Lily were rather hit or miss in their scenes. Of interest for Filipino viewers is the definitely the casting of Philippine-born Canadian actor Manny Jacinto as Eric Reyes, Lohan's leading man. When Eric's family came over, Manila and Tagalog were mentioned in the dialog, and the Filipino gesture of respect called the "mano" was highlighted. Jacinto also got to show off his dancing skills during the rehearsal scenes of the wedding dance. 7/10
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