Displaying items by tag: Julia Butters

FREAKIER FRIDAY

US, 2025, 110 minutes, Colour.

Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sofia Hammons, Mark Harmon, Manny Jacinto, Chad Michael Murray, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.

Directed by Nisha Ganatra.

Half a century ago there was a very popular version of Mary Rodgers’ novel, Freaky Friday with Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris as mother and daughter changing identities. And there have been quite a number of versions of Freaky Friday over since, especially in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. So, if you can wait long enough, there will be sequels. And, the sequel will be even freakier!

And, as time passes, Lindsay Lohan as Anna is now the mother of a teenager, Harper (Julia Butters – that little girl who had the critical conversation on the veranda with Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). Which means that Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess is now Grandma. But, how are they going to make the basic story freakier? And another couple!

The answer is to have Anna fall in love with Eric (Manny Jacinto) a charming gentleman chef from London whose wife has died and his daughter, now at school with Harper and bitter enemies, Lily (Sofia Hammons), wants to go back to England. Harper, of course, a Californian surfing teenager, has no desire to go to London.

You never know where fortune tellers with powers are to be found these days but this one here has a full-time job at Starbucks but takes time off to read palms. And she is ultimately very surprised at the freakier changes of identity.

This is a film very much for teenage girls (teenage boys barely get a look in) and girls under 12 point found it very interesting puzzle about all the fuss. The parent generation will now be identifying with Lindsay Lohan. And, all the rest can sit back and enjoy Jamie Lee Curtis (who becomes that London teenager) doing Granny-looking youngster antics while coping with some aches and pains!

Mark Harmon was there 22 years ago as was Chad Michael Murray, both of them reappearing, somewhat subdued.

One caution for older members of the audience, including this reviewer, the concentration needed for having to keep remembering who was who in who’s guise, was far more demanding than expected.

There is a rock concert finale, Anna having wanted to be a musical star but having to look after her daughter, the possibility of a crisis at the end as Harper, looking like Anna, has to sing her song, but the screenwriter provides a neat solution so that the song goes ahead, everybody is happy, the two girls learn to appreciate their parents, bond with each other – and, to leave readers in suspense and no spoiler, guess where they decide to live as one big happy family!

1. The many film versions of this story? The genre of body-swapping? Comic consequences? Appearances and reality? 2003, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan? Two decades later and a sequel? And multiplying the body-swapping?
2. The Los Angeles settings, homes, school, the music world, surfing, chefs and cooking? The songs and musical score?
3. Reintroducing Tess and Anna, 20 years, Tess as grandmother, Anna as single mother, her music career, not fulfilled, becoming a producer and manager, her client and her personality and tantrums, arranging the concert? Harper, teenager, surfing, the family bonds? Are the school, the clashes with Lily, British accent and manner, the sabotage of the chemistry experiment, leading to the spectacle of the cake fight and the attack on the principal?
4. The principal’s office, the reaction of the girls, Anna meeting Eric, British background, Filipino background, chef, widower, the attraction? Falling in love? The reaction of the girls?
5. Six months later, the engagement, wedding preparations, the prospect of moving to London? Lily and her personality, clashes with her father, Harper and her reaction, not wanting to leave Los Angeles?
6. The visit to Starbucks, the palm reader, the words, memories of the past body-swap, lightning striking twice, the double swapping?
7. Audiences coping with Anna as Harper, Harper as Anna, Lily as Tess, Tess as Lily? The comedy of Tess acting as a teenager, Lily as a grandmother, with aches, Anna and Harper, mother and daughter? The range of comedy, situations?
8. The plan to sabotage the move to London, the two girls, in the appearances of Tess and Anna? Tess and her behaving like a teenager, out of control, especially the car and the driving, the connivances? Harper appearing as her mother? Anna being her daughter?
9. The enjoyment of the vice versa experiences? But Eric and his bewilderment? And his wanting to do the best by his daughter, the breaking of the engagement?
10. The two girls in their other forms, conniving, going to see Jake, at the record store, the tantrums and stupidities, trying to get his help? The immigration interview and the revelations for Harper?
11. The buildup to the concert, the singer and her tantrums, Anna’s song, the crisis, her playing in the background, Harper upfront, the success of the song, Eric hearing, the appeal to him, carried to the front, the happy reunion? And reversal two characters?
12. The wedding party background, Eric and his mother, the other relations?
13. Everyone back to normal, Tess happy, Eric and Anna happy, and the two girls becoming friends – and, of course, not going to London!