There is a line in a song in the new movie Freakier Friday that says something to the effect of “Same old story, same old end.”  I have to wonder how that got into this movie.  I do not necessarily wish to demean it.  It is fine as these things go, if predictable.  At the same time, we are talking about a sequel that hits the same beats as its predecessor, Freaky Friday(2003).  Forgive me, but outside of the obvious criticism of repeating a film, should not the cinematic arts strive for something at least a little original?  We have yet to completely tap the vast potential that is the brain that God gave all of us, but we stick to the familiar because. . . ?  Because it is comfortable?  Safe?  I suppose the evident argument would be that familiarity equals more assured box office returns.  Also, the returning cast members seem to be having a good time, and that is a blessing.  I am also not going to tell you to avoid the production.  What I ask is that Hollywood try to come up with something new.  It may be scary, it may fail, but we have all had enough of the Freakier Fridays of the world.

It has been twenty-odd years since the previous movie, and in this Freakier Friday Dr. Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) is still a big part of her daughter, Anna Coleman’s (Lindsay Lohan), life.  Anna has transitioned from the rock n’ roll days of her youth to being a single mother to Harper Coleman (Julia Butters), and a music agent for Capitol Records in Los Angeles.  Because Anna is quite busy, Dr. Coleman takes it upon herself to help with some of the mothering duties, like getting Harper to school on time instead of surfing.  On this particular day, Harper has to do a chemistry experiment with her worst enemy, Lily Davies (Sophia Hammons).  Sophia is newly transferred from London, England, and she cares more about her fashion doodles and talking about her French boyfriend than correct chemical measurements.  Hence, as a heated Harper goads Sophia, their beaker explodes into a mass that breaks windows.  Anna assures her mother that she will be able to handle the visit with the school principal about the matter on her own.  Doing so leads to her meeting Eric Davies (Manny Jacinto), Lily’s father.  It is one of those love-at-first-sight moments and six months later, to Harper and Lily’s horror, they are getting engaged.  On the Thursday leading into wedding weekend, they have another spat at school that leads to them getting detention in the wake of a massive food fight they provoke.  Anna is near her breaking point with the girls, and Eric supports her demand that the teenagers try to get along the next day at Anna’s bachelorette party.  At the soiree is Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer), a charlatan of a fortune teller (which is repetitive, but I am Catholic) who is able to recognize in Anna and Dr. Coleman, and Harper and Lily, crossed paths, or are destined to be so, in an unusual way.  It is more than Anna and Dr. Coleman care to hear.  As for Harper and Lily, they fear, respectively, having to move to London or staying in Los Angeles.  Then, the earthquake happens that only the four of them feel.  Anna and Dr. Coleman try to explain it away to themselves, while Harper and Lily have no idea what is happening.  They are still clueless when they awaken the next morning, but this time it is to being in different bodies.  Okay, I am going to explain the switch once, but then revert to referring to each of them by their actual names rather than the body they currently occupy.  Anna switches with Harper, and Dr. Coleman with Lily.  There is the commensurate freaking out, if you will pardon the expression, as they come to grips with their new forms.  Once they have done so, they have to get on with their days by fulfilling the roles usually expected of their opposite.  While Anna and Dr. Coleman go to school to serve the detentions earned by the teenagers, Harper and Lily hatch a plan to put a stop to their parents’ wedding.  The idea comes at Anna’s work place when one of her musicians, Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), finds one of Anna’s old songs and asks to record it.  When Harper hears it, she assumes it is about an ex-boyfriend of her mom’s named Jake (Chad Michael Murray).  They go his record store and Harper tries to flirt with her, but it is clear, like before, that he is into Dr. Coleman.  Since that does not seem to work, Harper next vows to mess up Eric’s immigration interview by showing that he does not know her mother.  The opposite proves true, charming the immigration officer and showing Harper that he really does care for her mother.  The same is demonstrated when they go surfing the next day.  During this outing, Eric informs Harper that he intends for himself and Lily to stay in Los Angeles, commenting on how there is little waiting for them back in London.  Upon getting home, Lily is suspicious of Eric and Harper’s interaction, but Harper claims it was nothing out of the ordinary.  Unfortunately, Lily learns otherwise when Eric tells her that he and his daughter will be remaining in the United States.  In a last-ditch effort to stop the nuptials, Lily invites Jake to the rehearsal dinner.  When he arrives, Lily claims Anna is still in love with him, and that Dr. Coleman does not want the ceremony to happen.  With the distance Anna has been putting between them, and this latest announcement, Eric publicly makes the break.  Anna leaves the restaurant heartbroken, but needing to attend to Ella, who had been frantically texting her.  Unbeknownst to Anna, Harper had arranged for her mom’s old band to play at Ella’s concert.  It is a sweet gesture that, coupled with Harper’s admittance that she was wrong about Eric and Lily and asking for forgiveness, mends their relationship.  The same thing happens when Dr. Coleman talks to Lily.  The young woman says that she had been selfish, and she quickly apologizes to Eric.  The three of them go to the concert where all is forgiven and the switch back occurs.  The film ends with Anna and Eric’s wedding and a new, happy family.

If Freakier Friday sounds familiar, it is because is basically the same movie as its predecessor.  One difference is that Dr. Coleman had been a widow, eventually marrying Ryan Volvo (Mark Harmon), who is also in the sequel.  Indeed, he plays a pivotal role in convincing Lily that the Colemans are good people.  It shows that God puts us into some freaky situations (pun intended), and that our initial reaction to them will not always be the correct one.  Further, while I know that such a story is impossible, you would think that people who had been through this experience before might be a little more focused on the task of reversing the curse, so to speak.  You might notice that I did not say much about what Anna and Dr. Coleman did while in their teenage bodies because there is not much to tell.  The main joke with them is how great it is to have energy again, and to be able to eat whatever they want without consequences.  Then again, I suppose the same humor applies to Harper and Lily, just aged by a few decades.  My point here, though, is that this was all done in the predecessor.  It may appear hypocritical for a Catholic who says his daily Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet to complain about repetition, but could the concept not have been taken in some different directions?  Once more, I want to emphasize that I did not hate the movie.  This is simply my desire for originality.

I suppose one point of originality in Freakier Friday’s favor is the slogan the teenagers are given by Madame Jen, which is the substitute for the fortune cookie of the earlier movie.  In a trance, Madame Jen tells them to “Change the hearts you know are wrong to reach the place where you belong.”  Catholic history does have examples of the Holy Spirit moving people to speak prophecies, but I do not wish to make such a comparison because soothsaying is a grave sin.  Suffice to say, the fact that they consult with a fortune teller is disappointing.  What I can say about these words from a Catholic perspective is the great lesson they point to is learned by the end.  Each one of the four people who undergo the switcheroo are behaving in selfish ways at the outset.  In other words, their hearts are not in the right place.  Initially, Harper and Lily believe that this refers to a physical location.  By stopping the wedding, they can reside in the place where they believe they are the happiest.  What they come to realize is that it is not about themselves.  The Church teaches us that we should put others before ourselves.  This does not preclude self-care.  In fact, one of the duties of male and female religious is to take a personal retreat at least once a year.  This allows them to recharge those proverbial energy banks, especially spiritually speaking, in order to go back into the world and serve others.  Some people need a different kind of motivation for learning the importance of seeing things from another person’s perspective, which is essentially what happens in the movie.  It may happen in the reverse of what a priest or nun would do, and I also would not refer to their experience as a retreat, but they land in roughly similar spots.

Just the same, I would roughly recommend Freakier Friday.  Again, it is nothing new, but because what it emulated was a quality production of its own, I can overlook the sameness.  As a piece of good advice I once heard says: if you are going to steal, steal from the best.  In this case, it is a little more incestuous, but it works.