Lindsay Lohan’s career implosion is a Hollywood cautionary tale, well-known but rarely dissected. In 2004, she was an 18-year-old rocket, poised to be the next “it” girl, a la Sydney Sweeney.
The industry was so confident in her star power that they even pushed a short-lived music career. But her meteoric rise cratered just as fast. By 2006, Lohan’s party-girl reputation—fueled by alcohol and cocaine—tanked her reliability as an actress.
Her infamous stint in Russia cemented one of Hollywood’s most spectacular falls from grace. Fast-forward to 2025, and the question looms: can Lohan reclaim her spotlight? Hollywood’s testing the waters with Freakier Friday, a pointless sequel to the 2003 hit Freaky Friday that no one asked for.
The original Freaky Friday paired a young Lohan with Jamie Lee Curtis in a charming remake about a mother and daughter swapping bodies. It was a light, family-friendly comedy that worked for its time. Now, two decades later, Disney’s back with Freakier Friday, fast-forwarding to Anna (Lohan), now a single mother to a rebellious teen daughter, Harper.
The roles have flipped—Anna’s the frazzled parent, echoing her mother Tess (Curtis) from the first film. The story introduces a new wrinkle: Anna, planning a wedding to a British chef, Eric, clashes with his snobby teenage daughter, Lily, after Harper gets into a scuffle with her. To up the stakes, a magical mishap—courtesy of a mysterious fortune cookie—causes not just two but four women (Anna, Tess, Harper, and Lily) to swap bodies, forcing them to navigate each other’s chaotic lives.
It’s hard to get excited about a sequel arriving 20 years too late. Who’s the target audience? Older Millennials, who were teens during the original, might feel a nostalgic tug seeing Lohan and Curtis revisit their roles. But Disney also aims for Gen Z with younger characters, creating a tonal mess that fails to bridge generations. The body-swap premise, already stretched thin in 2003, feels exhausted here.
How many times can you justify a witchy gimmick forcing characters to swap bodies until they learn a trite life lesson? The film’s reliance on this recycled trope exposes how dated early-2000s family comedies feel in 2025, especially for a generation having fewer kids than ever before.
Lohan’s performance is competent but uninspired, hampered by a script that shoehorns shallow life lessons without connecting to the 20-year gap between films. Anna’s arc as a single mother “by choice” feels like a buzzword rather than a character trait. Curtis, nearing 70, is reduced to a glorified cameo, her Tess now a podcaster—an odd choice that adds little beyond nostalgia.
Her scenes, including a cringe-worthy moment where she flaunts her cleavage for cheap laughs, feel like pandering to a younger crowd that doesn’t care. The younger actresses, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Harper and Sophia Hammons as Lily, play like Disney Channel castoffs, their performances energetic but forgettable.Freakier Friday isn’t outright terrible—it’s just pointless.
The vibrant visuals and occasional humor can’t mask a story that feels like a corporate cash grab. Disney’s family-movie magic has faded, replaced by a not-so-subtle agenda pushing progressive themes, including a heavy-handed queer subplot that feels forced rather than organic. This isn’t the wholesome studio of yesteryear; it’s a machine chasing trends at the expense of storytelling.
The film’s pacing drags, with the four-way body swap creating more chaos than comedy, and the resolution lands with a thud. Lohan’s comeback is heartening—she’s clearly turned her life around—but Freakier Friday is the wrong vehicle.
If she wants a real resurgence, she needs to ditch comfort-zone nostalgia and take risks. This sequel coasts on her past glory without giving her room to shine. Curtis, meanwhile, deserves better than playing a glorified prop.
In a stronger year, Freakier Friday would be a forgettable blip. In 2025’s dismal cinematic landscape, it’s a reminder of Hollywood’s obsession with recycling old hits instead of crafting new ones. It’s an okay film that overstays its welcome, leaving you wishing Lohan had picked a project with more meat on its bones.
2/5
Society Reviews 
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