Freakier Friday Review: A Generational Clash for Millennials

The sequel to Freaky Friday is finally hitting theaters. More than 20 years have passed, and now the mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) and daughter (Lindsay Lohan) have much bigger problems to face.

As the title suggests, Freakier Friday takes things up a notch. Anna (Lohan) is now the mother of a teenager, Harper (Julia Butters). Harper gets into trouble at school with another teen, Lily (Sophia Hammons). When the parents are called in to deal with the situation, they end up connecting and becoming a couple. So now, the two girls who can’t stand each other are about to become part of the same family.

Watch the trailer for "Freakier Friday":

Eric Davies (Manny Jacinto) is Anna’s new love interest and the man she plans to marry. But aside from the conflict between Harper and Lily (Eric’s daughter) there’s also the emotional challenge that Lily is still very attached to the memory of her late mother. She and her father came from London, and Lily wants to go back. Hoping to help her embrace the new relationship, Anna decides that for the sake of family harmony, she’ll move to London with them, bringing Harper along too.

Harper and Lily don’t want their parents to get married because they can’t stand each other. Lily clings to the memory of her mother, and Harper doesn’t want to leave her life behind. So they come up with a plan to stop the wedding, but things take a wild turn when a mystical event during Anna’s bachelorette party causes Anna, Tess, Harper, and Lily to swap bodies.

A Nostalgic and Perfectly Timed Comedy

In this new installment, it’s not just mother and daughter swapping bodies. Now, the next generation is part of the magical equation. Tess becomes Lily, Anna becomes Harper, and vice versa. Chaos and confusion ensue, especially with Anna’s wedding to Eric just days away and the two teens barely able to tolerate each other.

Because Anna and Tess have already been through this, they lean on their experience to fix the situation. But there’s a twist: it’s not just up to them. The girls, now in their bodies, also need to help and they’re far more focused on stopping the wedding than on reversing the body swap.

One of the highlights of the movie is seeing Jamie Lee Curtis once again channel a teenager. This time, she plays one obsessed with fashion, decked out in outrageous outfits, speaking in slang, acting totally offbeat, and doing everything she can to avoid her husband Ryan (Mark Harmon). Her comedic timing is flawless, making her return a real standout of the film.

Even Jake (Chad Michael Murray) makes a comeback. He’s Anna’s ex-boyfriend, and in the original movie, one of the conflicts was that Jake started to fall for Tess (Curtis) because of her free-spirited vibe, unaware that it was actually Anna inside her mother’s body. Now, with Harper and Lily in Anna and Tess’s bodies, they plot to use Jake to help sabotage the wedding.

A Clever Script That Speaks to Millennials

Since Freakier Friday comes out 22 years after Freaky Friday, many might ask: “Can they really pull it off?”

The answer is yes. The film sticks to the structure of the original while using plenty of creativity to explore relevant topics and sensitive issues; all with the right amount of heart and humor to make the body-swap scenario resonate.

Take Lily’s resistance to her father’s new relationship, for example. It’s not just about grief over her mom’s passing. Soon after that loss, her father moved to the U.S. and met someone who already had a daughter her age. It’s a lot to handle.

As a solution, Eric and Anna decide that the best move is to relocate all four of them to London. This would bring Lily back to her home country, closer to extended family and the places tied to her mother’s memory. But no one stops to ask Harper how she feels. She may not mind her mom’s relationship, but she’s being forced to uproot her life and move to another country against her will.

This storyline shows how millennials have evolved and how they try not to repeat the mistakes of previous generations. Marriage, especially with children involved, comes with big decisions like moving abroad. The movie emphasizes the need to take kids’ perspectives and lives into account when making those decisions.

At the same time, the teens (who don’t yet grasp the complexities of adult life) have to see things from their parents’ point of view. Only by stepping into Anna and Tess’s shoes do they come to understand how deeply Eric loves Anna, how significant a marriage really is, and that their decision to get married is based on certainty and commitment.

Freakier Friday takes full advantage of the generational divides and comparisons that often surface on social media. When the original film came out in the early 2000s, there was a generational conflict between Anna, the teen daughter, and Tess, the mom. But back then, we weren’t constantly debating generations, behaviors, or values the way we are now.

Today, everything becomes a meme, a heated thread on X (formerly Twitter), or a viral TikTok explaining why one generation is better than the other. This film knows how to have fun with all that in a smart way, without sounding preachy or cringe.

It’s a comedy with heart, energy, and purpose. It aims to entertain? Yes. But it also has something important to say about empathy, understanding, and bridging the gap between generations.