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Parents' Guide to

Freaky Friday

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Mother-daughter switch is fun comedic chaos.

Movie PG 2003 95 minutes
Freaky Friday Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 24 parent reviews

Jessie B.
Jessie B. Parent
April 19, 2019
age 10+

Could do w/o the tired orientalism

Pretty much everything about the movie is pretty typical: kids struggle with parental dating after loss of parent, mom and adolescent daughter love each other but struggle to connect, mom is too tightly wound, little brother is obnoxious, daughter is a standout musician on her way to stardom, and so on... this is fine and makes for a pleasant if not predictable show except! The tired orientalism— the Chinese magical nonsense, complete with gong, is just yuck. I would encourage parents to use this as a teaching moment about how Chinese people, if they are featured at all, are repeatedly depicted as magical, exotic, and foreign by Hollywood.
BEAN Y.
BEAN Y. Parent of 7 and 9-year-old
March 19, 2023
age 2+

COOL

AWESOME
See all 24 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In FREAKY FRIDAY, based on the book by Mary Rodgers, Jamie Lee Curtis plays Tess, a compassionate therapist and a loving, if harried mother of two children. Her husband died three years ago, and she's about to be married to the devoted, understanding Ryan (Mark Harmon). Her daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan), like most 15-year-olds, thinks that she has both too much of her mother's attention (when it comes to telling her what to do) and not enough (when it comes to knowing what's important to her, which she thinks Tess should just be able to intuit, since Anna doesn't really want to tell her anything). When the two of them get into an argument at a Chinese restaurant, the owner's mother gives them magic fortune cookies. The next morning, they wake up as each other. While they figure out how to return to their own bodies, each has to spend the day living the other's life.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (24 ):
Kids say (51 ):

Curtis and Lohan are so clearly enjoying themselves that they're fun to watch, and the story moves along so briskly that its logical flaws barely get in the way. Freaky Friday is a great way to start discussions between parents and teens about how they can better understand one another.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the fairly common motif of switched identities in Freaky Friday. Have you seen the original 1976 version starring Jody Foster as a kid?

  • Why it is hard for Tess and Anna to understand each other at the beginning of the movie? If the parents and children in your family switched places, what would be the biggest surprises?

  • What do you think of how Anna resolves her problems with her English teacher and the honors exam?

  • How do Tess and Anna demonstrate self-control, gratitude, and empathy in Freaky Friday? Why are those important character strengths?

Movie Details

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