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REVIEW: Freakier Friday: A Study of Self-Absorption vs. Selfishness
By The Treasure-Sharer
My man and I watched Freakier Friday last week, and he asked me if I was going to review it, after just wrapping up my first movie review of F1 The Movie. I really didn't feel like it, since it had been a lot of work diving deeper into the F1 movie than I had planned to, but, when I was thinking of what to review for this week, I decided to do it anyway. I figured that I'd reviewed a guy movie, so why not follow it up with a review of a girl movie? Actually, it was my man who had chosen the movie, since he had already seen Freaky Friday and liked it, and decided to see the sequel with me (without me having even seen Freaky Friday yet, though I'd seen an older version of the movie, starring different actors, when I was a kid, and understood the body-switching concept of the movie). So I think that it's a movie that can be enjoyed by guys too, since my man liked it enough to want to watch it with me. We even watched Freaky Friday after it, so I watched the movies in the wrong order, but whatever.
I don't know if any other Freakier Friday reviews have been written by people who hadn't yet seen the first film before seeing the follow-up, so hopefully this will help viewers who haven't yet seen the first movie, but still want to know what to expect from the Freakier Friday movie.
It was a little confusing, because I didn't know the backstories of some of the characters, like the two main characters from the first movie, or their partners and exes.
See a promo poster for the Freakier Friday movie above, and some more below, taken from the movie's IMBD page. You can also view Freakier Friday trailers on the Freakier Friday IMBD page, under the "Videos" heading.
It was funny when we watched the preceding movie afterwards, and I finally understood things like Jake's behavior toward Anna's mom, etc.
Freakier Friday is funny, because I don't have anything against any of the actors, but I'm not a huge fan of them either. I'd only seen Lindsey Lohan in Mean Girls -- and had liked the movie, but thought that Lindsey's acting had just been okay. I'd seen Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies with my man, but had also thought that she was just okay. See an X post comparing Lindsey Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis playing Anna and Tess in the Freaky Friday movie, versus in the Freakier Friday movie, in the screenshot to the side.
What was hilarious was that when Jake showed up, my man said that he looked like a less-good-looking version of Chad Michael Murray, who I had used to have a crush on back when he played Tristan in the TV show Gilmore Girls, and I told my man that I couldn't see the resemblance, and later found out that it really was him. I should have known that my man was right, because he's very good at remembering and identifying faces, while I'm pretty horrible at it. See an X post comparing Chad Michael Murray playing Jake in Freaky Friday versus in Freakier Friday, in the screenshot to the side.
It's funny, because I actually found it out from an old post that I had made as a teen, where someone had recommended that I watch Freaky Friday because I had asked for Chad Michael Murray movie recommendations. I couldn't recognize Chad Michael Murray anymore because I'd forgotten what he looked like, and also didn't find him as attractive as I used to, since being with my man has honestly made me lose attraction for all the guys I used to like or find attractive.
I think that it's interesting and sad that they decided to break Anna (Lindsey Lohan) and Jake (Chad Michael Murray)'s characters up. See a photo of them from their younger days in Freaky Friday to the side. Since I watched Freakier Friday first, I didn't know their backstory, but I liked them as a couple, so I thought that it was kind of sad that they split them up in order to make the storyline work, but I suppose that it was necessary, to create the new storyline, and to be able to set the story up for four body switches, etc. I guess that it also allowed the movie to poke fun at Jake's funny feelings toward Anna's mom that he'd developed while not knowing that he had actually been interacting with Anna the whole time, while she was in her mom's body. You need to understand that in order for the scenes between Jake and Anna's mom in Freakier Friday to make sense.
The reason why I decided to review Freakier Friday was because I think that it did a good job of showing what you can learn by walking a mile in other people's shoes, and also appreciate the things that most take for granted.
The movie showed how misconceptions can cause unnecessary rifts, and how good real understanding can be.
Self-absorption vs. Selfishness
It was only after I had started working on this review that I realized the central theme of self-absorption versus selfishness that it contained -- that I decided to identify in the title of this review -- and how Freakier Friday does a good job of helping people identify the difference between the two.
I think that it's very difficult to recognize self-absorption in oneself, if one is self-absorbed -- speaking from experience. I'm still guilty of moments of self-absorption, and thought that it was good for me to study Freakier Friday to help me better recognize self-absorption in myself, and work toward stopping it.
The article Self-absorbed vs Self-centered: Understanding the Distinction describes being self-absorbed as meaning being preoccupied with one's own feelings, interests, or thoughts to the extent that one may be unaware of others' needs or perspectives. As it says, a self-absorbed individual lacks external awareness, and may struggle to recognize or understand the emotions and needs of those around them, and has internal focus, with their thoughts predominantly revolving around their own experiences, challenges, and feelings. In contrast, being self-centered means prioritizing one's own needs and desires over those of others, such that a self-centered person puts themselves first, consciously placing their interests above others, often at the expense of those around them. They also lack empathy, and might understand others' feelings, but choose to prioritize their own.
At its heart, Freakier Friday is a movie about self-absorption, and the need to learn to see outside of yourself, and your own wants, needs, and perspectives, and understand the real motives behind people's actions, perceptions, and behaviors. It was a good reminder for me, since my man taught me these things already in the past, and already highlighted their importance in my life, and helped me see what a problem self-absorption was.
Seeing this movie, and reviewing it now, reinforces these to me, and how important it is for me to recognize when I am being self-absorbed, and do my best to think of and try to understand others during these moments, in order to prevent unnecessary and unintentional problems in relationships with those I care about, like those portrayed in the Freakier Friday movie.
In the first Freaky Friday movie, the body swap happened only between the mother and daughter, and had more time to focus on and flesh out their lives and stories. See the movie poster for the Freaky Friday movie, taken from the Freaky Friday IMBD page, to the side.
Freakier Friday is more complicated, in that this body swap film involves a four-way body swap, among the main two characters of the first movie -- Anna and her mom, Tess (but now much older) -- as well as Anna's daughter, Harper, and Anna's daughter's enemy at school, Lily, a girl who transferred to Harper's school from Britain.
Anna is now a single mom, and an altercation between her daughter and the British girl brings the parents of both to the girls' school, after the girls end up accidentally starting a huge food fight, due to their personal quarrel. Anna and the British girl's dad, Eric, fall in love at first sight, and plan to marry soon afterward, leaving their children dismayed, and totally against the decision.
I think that the body switch among four characters, and the various relationships explored and how they are intertwined and affected, helped portray self-absorption in various contexts, so I feel that the more complex level of body-switching, and the swapped realities, was valuable, and added more than a body switch between, say, only Anna and her daughter would have. See the characters involved in the four-way body switch in the photo to the side, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page.
My man told me how he realized that it would have been too complicated to have had the British girl switch bodies with her dad, because it would have involved dealing with a male-female body switch, and involve unnecessary focuses on dealing with their differences in genetalia, etc., so that it just made more sense to have a female-only body swap. This also makes sense to me, to keep the focus on showing the differences that mattered -- like differences in aged bodies versus young ones that we often take for granted -- rather than having a body switch film filled with more immature humor that most body switch films involving body switches between girls and boys tend to have.
Swap to See Below the Surface
Encounters with a fortune teller during Anna's bacholerette party leads to the four-way body switch, forcing the movie's four main females to get firsthand experiences of what each other has to deal with on a daily basis. See a photo of the fortune teller, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page, to the side.
The characters in this body swap story, you see, are all unhappy on some level, although they each have lives that look glamorous and successful, on the surface. Anna is a producer of a hot singer, her mother is a famous psychologist and author of her own book, her daughter is a fantastic surfer, who gets to surf in the morning before school, due to their prime California location, and the daughter of Lindsey's new lover is a posh girl who looks like she's got it all together, and has a real talent for fashion.
In reality, each one is stressing out about problems that no one else knows about, which are exacerbated by the all-too-sudden marriage proposal.
The daughters don't want the wedding to happen, and the fortune teller's freaky fortune switches the four characters around, so that Anna and her daughter swap bodies, while the British girl swaps bodies with Anna's mom. It's funny to see how Anna's mom gets excited about losing the physical problems that come with her "old" body, while the British girl freaks out about being forced to experience them all herself. This particular switch does feel a bit random, though, since the two aren't actually related. See a photo of their body switch, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page, above.
Everyone savors a bit of the good things that come with their new bodies (re. the older women getting to be able to eat as much as they want with their faster metabolisms), and the younger girls having the freedom to drive, and work with Anna's famous client, who the British girl is able to design an outfit for, which is like a dream come true for her, since she dreams of a career in fashion design. See photos of the four characters enjoying the benefits of their new bodies, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page, below.
The movie highlights the importance of seeing situations from your loved ones' perspectives, to see that there really is more to a situation than you might believe.
**SPOILER ALERT**
STOP READING NOW, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE THE ENDING OF THE MOVIE SPOILED!!!
I liked how the movie showed how everyone actually cared for the well-being of everyone else, and that the biggest misunderstanding between everyone was feeling that they weren't cared about, when it was actually the opposite. The daughters both changed their minds about their parents' wedding after discovering in their switched bodies how much their parents truly loved each other, and how good for each other their parents as a couple were. The daughters felt this way even before later hearing from their parents how their parents actually cared about and put their kids first, above everyone else, showing that their change of heart regarding the wedding was not because of having their parents' love for them assured, but because they truly cared about what was best for their parents. See a photo of Anna and her new lover's loving relationship above, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page.
I think that this movie shows the clear distinction between self-absorption and selfishness. Where it would initially appear that everyone was selfish and only caring for and thinking about themselves (selfish), the distinction was that all the characters actually very much loved and cared for one another.
My man told me that it was important that I emphasize that the characters thought that all the other characters were making their decisions based on selfishness, but were able to see after switching bodies that this was not the case. As an example, my man cited the British girl believing that her father was selfish for wanting to remarry so soon after her mother had died, not realizing that he had decided to do so in great part for her sake, believing that being part of a loving, whole family would be good for her, and help her heal from her trauma of losing her mother (which she came to realize at the end of the movie was exactly what she wanted and needed).
Single-parent Situation
I think that the self-absorption was them being focused on their own situations, and not understanding each others' situations, and fearing losing what they had, especially since the commonalities between everyone was that everyone was in single-parent and single-child relationships, where each member already had to deal with only getting love from one parent / child. I believe that that is part of why my man resonates with the Freaky Friday and Freakier Friday movies so much, as he is from a single-parent household, himself.
It's easy to end up feeling unloved when the single parent is struggling and working to make ends meet, and doesn't have the time to spend as much time with their children as the parents and children might like, and it also makes sense why the children would feel so threatened by a new lover who might take even more of that love away. See the photo above, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page, showing what a headache the parents felt from the bad relationship between their children.
I think that this is a good movie for people in single-parent households to watch with their children, and reflect on afterward.
I think that it was also good how the two girls who started out as enemies were able to better understand each other through the experience, and be willing to become sisters. I liked that more than how Anna's relationship with her old best friend, Stacey, was handled in the first Freaky Friday movie, where they both ended up sabotaging one another, with no resolution.
The movie totally made me cry at the end, at the truths that the girls discovered about their parents and themselves, and the deep love that they realized that each had for one another, and how they actually had each other's best interests in mind. The movie's ending left me feeling very emotional, and happy that the four main characters had all come to learn what they needed to, and have the change of heart required to switch them all back to their original bodies.
This movie is important to watch not just for fun, but for the lesson that we need to stop thinking of ourselves and our own problems all the time, and realize that understanding others is as important for us as it is for them.
My man thought that it was good that they didn't put too much woke stuff into the movie, compared to most movies put out nowadays. He did prefer the way that the body swap was instigated in the first Freaky Friday movie -- with the Chinese lady and the fortune cookie -- to the over-the-top way it was presented in Freakier Friday -- with the a-bit-too-much fortune teller and funkier delivery of the fortune -- as he thought that the original swap was more natural, made more sense, and was way less gimmicky. See the fortune teller talking to Anna and her mom in the photo above, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page.
My man told me that Lindsey did her own singing and guitar playing in the movie, having decided while she was growing up that she wanted to become a triple threat -- being able to sing, act, and play an instrument -- and that she'd said that playing the guitar for this movie was even harder than for the last one, since she hadn't played since the last movie and was really rusty, and because the guitar riffs for Freakier Friday were even harder than the ones in Freaky Friday. See her playing with her old group, Pink Slip, in Freakier Friday, in the photo to the side, taken from the Freakier Friday IMBD page.
I think that knowing these facts made me appreciate the movie and Lindsey more. We watched The Parent Trap afterward, and I appreciated Lindsey's acting even more, as my man had told me that Lindsey had played two different twins, and it was crazy to see how she was able to play two different characters (with two different accents) so differently. If you're a Lindsey Lohan fan, then I'm sure you'll appreciate her comeback movie. See the photo to the side to see Lindsey playing the two different twins in The Parent Trap, taken from The Parent Trap IMBD page.
My man also found two deleted scenes with Manny Jacinto's character, Eric, from the Freakier Friday movie on X, if you want to see more of his acting and scenes: https://x.com/mannyfiles/status/1975957991095681114
https://x.com/mannyfiles/status/1975721567394144359
Review:
Pros:
-good job exploring the theme of empathy
-good job showing how self-absorption functions and can get in the way of understanding
-sweet story line
-not too much woke stuff
-good acting
-good tie-ins with Freaky Friday, the first movie
-cool band performance at the end, featuring Lindsey Lohan really playing the guitar and singing
-good portrayal of the problems experienced in single-parent households, and showing the misundertandings that can result, but also showing how they can be cleared up through communication and empathy
Cons:
-four-body switch may be hard to follow, for some people
-focus on female characters may make it less relatable to guys
-body-switch scenario a little over-the-top, with the unrealistically freaky fortune teller
Gem or Junk?
For Us:
Gem (3.8 stars out of 5)
Freakier Friday would have probably made more sense to me if I had watched Freaky Friday first, but even though I watched the two body switch films in the wrong order, I was still able to enjoy Freakier Friday, which I think shows that it did a good job with the storyline. The only parts that I didn't follow as well were the storylines related to Anna's ex, and the significance of her band, Pink Slip. I thus think that Freakier Friday can be watched on its own, without or before seeing Freaky Friday, but that seeing Freaky Friday first would probably help.
I didn't watch Freakier Friday to learn lessons, but writing this review let me realize that the movie can actually convey a lot of important insights, when watched with the mindset for it. I also think that it can speak to people from single-parent households in particular, and may perhaps help them gain greater understanding of one another, when watched together.
I liked watching the heart-warming moments, as characters came to realizations about each other and themselves, and the misunderstandings they'd had. I loved the reunions and closer relationships that resulted.
I like movies with happy endings that make sense, and arrive realistically, and, although this movie has fantastical elements to it and the supernatural body-switching theme, I think that it did a good job portraying realistic realizations, despite the sometimes absurd scenarios that brought them about -- so that the happy endings for each character did not seem forced, but acceptable.
Freakier Friday also did a good job showing realistic responses in how the characters behaved in their new bodies, and it was funny and fun to witness.
If you're feeling like a light movie that the whole family can watch together and get something from, that could even bring the family closer together, then this is a great movie for that.
Family-friendly, and also watchable by anyone who is open to viewing it for its good storyline, as opposed to dismissing it as a "girl movie" or "kid movie," I think that it's worth anyone watching, as even my man enjoyed it and chose it for us to see together, as opposed to me as the girl making my man watch it with me.
Try it yourself and see.
I should note that the Vagabond, who watched the movie separately, mentioned that the four-way body switch was too complicated for her to follow, and that she had trouble remembering who was in who's body. My man and I didn't experience this problem, but it's possible that other viewers might find the switches hard to keep track of. I thus recommend watching the movie with other people, both to help identify who switched bodies with who (if you also find this difficult to follow), and also to be able to have someone to discuss the movie with afterward, if it interests you to do so.
Gems For Who?
1. Families.
2. Single-parent-household families.
3. Girls.
4. Lindsey Lohan fans.
5. Jamie Lee Curtis fans.
6. Chad Michael Murray fans.
7. Freaky Friday fans.
8. Feel-good movie fans.
9. People who like body switch movies.
10. People who like body swap comedy movies.
11. People who like comedies.
12. People who like family movies.
13. People who like wholesome movies.
14. People who like family-friendly movies.
15. People who like nostalgia movies.
16. People who want to better understand self-absorption.
17. People who like movies with bands and original songs.
18. People who want to see the fictitious band Pink Slip perform again.
Conclusion:
The Lindsey Lohan / Jamie Lee Curtis remake of Freaky Friday is considered to be one of the best body swap movies, and I think that the sequel did it justice. I enjoyed watching Freakier Friday a lot, and I think that it's worth others watching too. I feel like girls should be able to watch it with their significant others, since I was able to do so with my man, but can also watch it with their families, and with friends. It's a movie you can watch for fun, and to learn lessons from, if you want to do so. Even if you haven't seen any Freaky Friday movies or movie versions, if you like funny body switch movies, or funny movies in general, then I'm sure that you'll get some laughs, and more, out of this movie.
As my man commented to me, a lot of movies coming out nowadays have pretty pointless plotlines, with a lot of "woke" stuff thrown in, as well as being filled with bad messages, trying to push bad ideologies onto their unsuspecting viewers, who are unaware of the agendas behind them.
It was thus refreshing to see a movie coming out this year that still had a good plotline, good acting, and wholesome storyline and actors, and providing good messages, insights, and outlooks, like movies from back in my man's and my childhoods and youth had.
Watch Freakier Friday for laughs, or for a study in self-absorption versus selfishness. Either way, it's still better than a lot of the movies being released nowadays, and is worth watching, in our opinions.
My man recommended that I do a review on the declining movie industry in general, since it really is THAT bad, so I'll think about it, and consider doing one for a future review.
If you haven't seen our movie review on F1 The Movie yet, you should totally check it out, as a guy movie that I think that girls can also get a lot out of, if viewed with the right company and understanding.
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See you in my next post! :)
