Freaky Friday vs. Freaky Friday

1 comments

2 comments

1976

I just watched both for the first time and thought each was delightful, but I'm going to have to give it to the remake for having a stronger emotional through line and less cringeworthy male characters—I wanted Barbara Harris to divorce Sean Astin's sexist domineering ass at the end of the 1976 film. I don't like the remake's introduction of token Magical Asians, though, and I thought the younger brother character was less stereotypical in the original. Great performances from the leading actresses in both films.

The remake is actually better, oddly enough. Watching Freaky Friday (2003), I was struck again (as I did when watching Mean Girls) how good Lindsey Lohan really was. Not just un-bad, but she brings real nuance to her role as a 35 year old in a teen's body. Barbara Harris vs Jamie Lee Curtis is essentially a wash, but Lohan's performance is genuinely better than Foster's. It also helped that the last act of the remake wasn't the silly sitcom-like finale of the original. This is a remake that tops the original, and it's not all that close.