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Freaky Friday (1976)
A pair of terrific performances by the female leads help keep Disney's 1976 comedy Freaky Friday watchable instead of silly and illogical.
Annabel Andrews (Jodie Foster) is a tomboyish teenager whose room is a mess and has a crush on the boy across the street. She also is constantly at odds with her tightly wound mother, Ellen (Barbara Harris). One morning after another confrontation with each other, mother and daughter are complaining about how the other one's life is so much easier and simultaneously wish that they could be each other for just one day and, guess what happens?.
Yes, this is the one that started them all, the body switch comedies that were prevalent in the 80's and 90's....movies like Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, and more adult versions like The Change-up, films which offered somewhat feasible explanations for the body switch but no such luck here. According to this film, the only reason that the switch occurs is because Ellen and Annabel make the wish at the same time. We can accept that up to the point where they switch back making a similar wish at the same time, but this time, their bodies as well as their souls switch. Why would switching back make their bodies change locations if the original wish didn't do that? I was also troubled by the fact that after the switch, Ellen was constantly seen chewing bubble gum, but before the switch, we never saw Annabel chewing hum.
Mary Rodgers' somewhat cliched screenplay, which actually uses long begone phrases like "male chauvanist pig", is made viable thanks to the intelligent and vivacious performances by the late Barbara Harris and future Oscar winner Foster, who bring substance to the roles that are not in the screenplay. I especially loved the scenes testing Annabel's parents' marriage...when Ellen flirts with Annabel's across the street crush (Marc McClure) and when Annabel meets her father's curvy new secretary. These actresses almost make you forget everything that's wrong with this movie. Foster's breezy performance actually earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Despite a ridiculously over the top finale which seems to feature the same location where they filmed the Thunder Road race in Grease two years later, the film does provide enough laughs to keep you awake. John Astin is fun as Ellen's husband and Annabel's father and several movie and TV veterans pop up along the way, including Dick Van Patten, Patsy Kelly, Alan Oppenheimer, Kaye Ballard, Sorrell Booke, and Marie Windsor. One of Annabel's high school posse is a very young Charlene Tilton and Van Patten's son Jimmy can also be glanced briefly. The film was remade in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis replacing Harris and Lindsey Lohan stepping in for Foister.
A pair of terrific performances by the female leads help keep Disney's 1976 comedy Freaky Friday watchable instead of silly and illogical.
Annabel Andrews (Jodie Foster) is a tomboyish teenager whose room is a mess and has a crush on the boy across the street. She also is constantly at odds with her tightly wound mother, Ellen (Barbara Harris). One morning after another confrontation with each other, mother and daughter are complaining about how the other one's life is so much easier and simultaneously wish that they could be each other for just one day and, guess what happens?.
Yes, this is the one that started them all, the body switch comedies that were prevalent in the 80's and 90's....movies like Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, and more adult versions like The Change-up, films which offered somewhat feasible explanations for the body switch but no such luck here. According to this film, the only reason that the switch occurs is because Ellen and Annabel make the wish at the same time. We can accept that up to the point where they switch back making a similar wish at the same time, but this time, their bodies as well as their souls switch. Why would switching back make their bodies change locations if the original wish didn't do that? I was also troubled by the fact that after the switch, Ellen was constantly seen chewing bubble gum, but before the switch, we never saw Annabel chewing hum.
Mary Rodgers' somewhat cliched screenplay, which actually uses long begone phrases like "male chauvanist pig", is made viable thanks to the intelligent and vivacious performances by the late Barbara Harris and future Oscar winner Foster, who bring substance to the roles that are not in the screenplay. I especially loved the scenes testing Annabel's parents' marriage...when Ellen flirts with Annabel's across the street crush (Marc McClure) and when Annabel meets her father's curvy new secretary. These actresses almost make you forget everything that's wrong with this movie. Foster's breezy performance actually earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
Despite a ridiculously over the top finale which seems to feature the same location where they filmed the Thunder Road race in Grease two years later, the film does provide enough laughs to keep you awake. John Astin is fun as Ellen's husband and Annabel's father and several movie and TV veterans pop up along the way, including Dick Van Patten, Patsy Kelly, Alan Oppenheimer, Kaye Ballard, Sorrell Booke, and Marie Windsor. One of Annabel's high school posse is a very young Charlene Tilton and Van Patten's son Jimmy can also be glanced briefly. The film was remade in 2003 with Jamie Lee Curtis replacing Harris and Lindsey Lohan stepping in for Foister.