By REVIEW BY DAN DUNN Special to the Daily Press
The Summer of Retreads steams along this week as we get not one, but two major studio releases cloaked in the familiar habiliments of 1970s schlock: The film adaptation of the television series “S.W.A.T.” and a remake of the 1977 mom-daughter-switcheroo flick “Freaky Friday.” The difference is that unlike the anemic “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle,” the latest entries in the remake field are actually improvements upon their unremarkable progenitors. Let’s begin with the latter … Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Dr. Tess Coleman, a widowed mother of two juggling the demands of single-parenthood with a hectic career as a psychiatrist and author. On the eve of her wedding to her complaisant fiancé Ryan (Mark Harmon), friction between Tess and her free-spirited 16-year-old daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan) reaches critical mass. Anna is Hollywood’s prototypical PG-variety rebellious youth — she wears Doc Martens and has crazy-color in her hair, but drinking, smoking and cussing are out of the question. All she really wants to do is rock out with her bubblegum garage band, go to the mall and date older hunks.
The Palm Pilot-dependent Tess, on the other hand, wants her daughter to behave like a proper young lady, and can’t understand why Anna is so averse to the impending nuptials.
After some bizarre “Asian voodoo” involving a meddling restaurant proprietor and some supernatural fortune cookies, Anna and Tess switch bodies and are literally forced to walk in each other’s shoes.
While desperately trying to figure out how to switch back in time for Tess to get married and Anna to win a big battle of the bands competition, the two begin to see one another in a new light.
Where the original “Freaky Friday” was content to derive its humor from the most predictable places, the remake strives to be a little more inventive and succeeds to a large degree. The primary reason for this is clear: Curtis and Lohan are excellent playing against and as each other. They’re having more fun, and consequently so are we. No doubt Jodie Foster (star of the original) is one of the best dramatic actresses ever, but comedy is clearly not her bag. With successful turns in “The Parent Trap” and the Disney Channel’s “Get A Clue” on her resume, Lohan has proven to possess considerable comedic chops. Though I wonder how she would have fared in “Taxi Driver.” And Jamie Lee Curtis flat-out shines here. It’s the best thing she’s done since 1994’s “True Lies.” At the risk of being trite, “Freaky Friday” truly is fun for the whole family. (Rated PG for mild thematic elements and some language. Running time: 97 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 8, 2003. Read the original PDF.